Glacier Streams 1909

John Singer Sargent made this mountain scene with oil paint, probably en plein air. Look at the thick, creamy strokes of ochre, blue, and white – it's like he sculpted the rocks and sky right onto the canvas. I can almost feel the sun beating down as he worked, squinting to capture that blinding light reflecting off the glacier. Imagine him wrestling with the wind, trying to mix the perfect shade of glacial blue. I bet he layered the paint, scraping back to reveal earlier marks, searching for the right balance between realism and raw feeling. That one stroke of pure white, slashing down the center – it’s so bold! It’s like a lightning bolt, instantly conveying the rush of water and the chill in the air. It reminds me of Courbet, and of course the later abstract expressionists who were also trying to find ways of expressing feelings through pure paint. Painters are always in conversation with each other, across time. What he did here paved the way for so many others to embrace uncertainty and ambiguity.