Mules and Ruins 1918

John Singer Sargent made Mules and Ruins with watercolour on paper. It’s like he splashed the world onto the page, all in pale browns and purples. I can picture Sargent with his brush dancing, trying to catch the light on the weathered buildings. I wonder if he was thinking about how things fall apart, like old structures, and old ways of life. Look at those strokes that make the sky, so free and easy, but then the more deliberate marks that define the mules, weighed down by the remnants of a lost world. He must have really felt the weight of that moment. Sargent was always looking at light and how it changes things. Like Monet, but with a sharper eye on people and places, not just the shimmer of light on water. Painting isn't just about what you see; it's about what you feel and how you translate that onto the canvas. It's like writing, but with colors and shapes. You're telling a story, but it's a story that can be felt as much as seen.