The Chess Game 1907

John Singer Sargent made this painting, “The Chess Game,” with oil on canvas. I'm thinking about how Sargent was working. He's got these two figures, lounging outdoors, fully absorbed in their game. The way he’s brushed the paint on is so free. You can see the strokes, how he built up the forms with layers of color, especially in the water which feels really alive with light. I wonder what Sargent was thinking about while he worked on this? I imagine him trying to capture not just what he saw, but how it felt to be there, by that stream, watching these two as they concentrate on their chess moves. Painters, we’re all just bouncing ideas off each other, across time, across canvases. Sargent was in dialogue with the Impressionists, and his own mark-making, the way he lets the brush dance, leaves the painting open to all sorts of readings. It’s like the painting itself is a game, of seeing, feeling, and thinking.