Giudecca 1907

John Singer Sargent made this small watercolour, "Giudecca", sometime around the turn of the last century. He must have been standing on a boat, looking at a larger boat! The paint handling is fast, and direct. He doesn't fuss or fiddle. You can see he uses a wet-on-wet technique. See how the sails just bleed into the sky? The whole scene shimmers and breathes. It feels like a fleeting moment captured in broad strokes. I love the water at the bottom. Sargent drags his brush horizontally, using a range of greens, blues, browns, and even a touch of red. Look closely, and you can see the white of the paper peeking through. This adds to the sense of light reflecting and flickering on the surface. This piece reminds me of some of the seascapes of Winslow Homer, another American master of watercolor. Both artists understood how to capture the essence of a scene with deceptive simplicity. For me, it's the kind of work that proves that art is more about feeling and expression, than perfect representation.