The Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice 1882

John Singer Sargent created "The Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice" with watercolor on paper. Sargent was an expatriate, an American artist living in Europe, and this work reflects his privileged position. It is a dreamy, impressionistic depiction of Venice. But I want you to think about who is absent from this picture. Where are the working-class Venetians who made the city run? The gondoliers, the merchants, the laborers? Their absence speaks volumes about whose Venice Sargent chose to see, and perhaps, who he made it for. Rather than a gritty, realistic portrayal, Sargent offers us a romanticized view, focusing on the aesthetic beauty of the architecture and the shimmering light on the water. This image evokes a sense of nostalgia, a longing for a past that may never have truly existed. It's beautiful, yes, but also a carefully constructed vision that obscures as much as it reveals.