Flotsam and Jetsam 1908

John Singer Sargent made 'Flotsam and Jetsam' with watercolor, and it’s like looking at a half-remembered dream of a boatyard by the sea. The brushstrokes dance with light and shadow, and he really lets the watercolor do its thing, bleeding and mingling those blues and browns. I can imagine Sargent, out in the sun, squinting and trying to capture a fleeting moment. He's probably thinking about the way light hits the hull of the boat or the reflections in the water. There’s this casualness, a certain off-handedness in his work, but it feels very deliberate, like he’s in a hurry to pin something down before it disappears. That dark curve of the boat, looming over the figures in the foreground, creates such a feeling of depth, you know? The contrast between the darks and lights makes the whole scene feel alive. Sargent was obviously in conversation with artists like Whistler, and his contemporaries, all pushing the boundaries of what watercolor could do.