Studies for ‘Heaven’ and ‘Hell’ 1903 - 1916

John Singer Sargent made this drawing, Studies for ‘Heaven’ and ‘Hell’, using graphite on paper, and just imagine him hunched over the page, working and reworking the figures. I love how the marks here are tentative, searching - these nude figures tilting back, lost in reverie. It makes me think about the times when I’m in the studio wrestling with a painting, trying to get the form just right, and it feels like a battle between what I see and what I want to see. Sargent is grappling with how to represent the body, but he’s also thinking about how to convey emotion, spiritual ecstasy, maybe even suffering. You can see him thinking through these figures in relationship to the old masters. I imagine him looking at Michelangelo, wondering how to make these figures soar off the page. And that dark shading, it’s like he’s conjuring up light from the depths of the paper, just as painters still do today, exchanging ideas and techniques across time.