Man and Pool, Florida 1917

John Singer Sargent’s ‘Man and Pool, Florida’ is a watercolour of loose washes, with very little hard lines, which lets the composition breathe. Sargent’s got this incredible handle on colour and value. Look at the way he lets the white of the paper do so much work. See how the figure seems to emerge, almost without contour, from the ground of browns and yellows. It's all about process with the blurring of edges. The way the figure almost merges with the earth is incredible. And down below, the water is a mix of blues, greens and greys, all pulled together in a way that feels totally natural, but also really considered. Notice that the brushstrokes are super-fast, not laboured over, and are all about getting the essential idea down. It’s hard to look at this picture without thinking about Cézanne. Cézanne's watercolours are all about this loose and gestural approach, capturing the essence of a scene, and I see a similar attitude in Sargent’s painting. Ultimately, paintings aren’t about definitive answers.