Camping at Lake O-Hara 1916

John Singer Sargent made this watercolor painting of "Camping at Lake O-Hara," using fluid strokes of pigment on paper. Sargent was known for his society portraits in oil, but here, the portable medium of watercolor allowed him a more informal study. You can almost feel the dampness of the Canadian Rockies. The tents, brightly rendered, are a classic example of the kind of equipment that was available at the time for leisurely camping. The rough canvas, the simple wooden poles – these would have been mass-produced, of course, yet also speak to the ‘Great Outdoors’ mythos so popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Note the figures in the foreground, attending to the practicalities of the campsite. Sargent gives us a glimpse into a specific kind of encounter with nature, one increasingly mediated by industry and leisure. The very act of painting *en plein air* was made easier by industrially produced materials. In the end, this work reminds us that even seemingly direct encounters with nature are shaped by making, materials, and social context.