Dulcigno (from Sketchbook) 1904

Mary Newbold Sargent made this pencil sketch, Dulcigno, from her sketchbook. You can see the quick, gestural marks where she’s laid down the contours of the buildings, the solid walls and houses, and the shadows underneath. It's really spare. I imagine her, sitting there, maybe the sun is hot, the light is bright, and she’s trying to capture the essence of the place, this town nestled into the hillside. The marks are applied in a really linear fashion, with many parallel marks. You can see where she’s tried to describe the shadows, bearing down on the pencil to make the shade darker. She must have been working really quickly to capture the moment, the light, the feeling of the place. I love how the strokes of the pencil show the texture and the light. You can feel the artist’s hand in every stroke, in every decision. Artists are always learning from one another, picking up ideas and techniques across time. It’s like we’re all in this ongoing conversation, adding our own voices to the mix.