The Olive Grove 1910

John Singer Sargent made this painting, The Olive Grove, with oil paint, and it is really about how he saw and felt his way through the world. The paint in the trees is scrubby and dry. It's like he's trying to get the feeling of the scratchy leaves by scratching the paint into the canvas. And then the lower half of the picture plane is more blended and vague, with the figures melting into the ground. I love the way he's captured the light filtering through the leaves, creating this dappled effect on the ground. Sargent’s work can remind me of Manet, who was also interested in how to make modern paintings that didn’t look like anything that had come before. Like Manet, Sargent is playing with how to show us the world through paint and asking us to reconsider what painting can do. It’s not about perfection, it's about the process.