Mountain Goats c. 1910

Editor: Here we have John Singer Sargent's "Mountain Goats," a small drawing at the Harvard Art Museums. It's really interesting how he used pencil and maybe wash to quickly capture the animals. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Sargent's hasty application of media speaks to the function of sketches in the artistic process. It asks us to consider what kind of labor went into this study. Was it purely observational? Or were these goats destined for a grander composition? Editor: So you're thinking about the process more than the subject? Curator: Precisely. The sketch itself becomes a record of artistic intention and the means by which Sargent experimented with form and composition. Editor: I never thought about it that way, seeing the drawing as a step in making something else. Curator: By focusing on the materiality, we can appreciate the art of production itself.