Villa Torlonia, Frascati 1907

John Singer Sargent made this luminous watercolour of the Villa Torlonia in Frascati, capturing a moment in time. I can almost see him there with his paper and brushes, trying to seize the light. I love how he's built up the image with washes of colour, the brush dancing lightly across the surface of the paper. See how the architectural details of the villa are suggested with just a few strokes? He's not trying to be too precise, just hinting at the forms, letting the white of the paper do some of the work. Those blues and greens, so fluid, capture the movement of the water as it spills from the fountain. It makes me wonder about the dialogue he was having with artists like Homer and Marin, also working in watercolour at the time, each finding their own way to capture the world around them. Painting is such an exchange, a conversation across time.