Fontana dei Pupazzi, Villa Borghese, Rome c. 1906 - 1907

John Singer Sargent made this watercolor, Fontana dei Pupazzi, Villa Borghese, Rome, with a sense of immediacy and light touch. The colors are muted, yet they capture the Roman sunlight dancing on the water and the stone. It’s all about the process, you know? You can almost see Sargent’s hand moving quickly, laying down washes of color to build up the forms. Look at the way he handles the fountain itself; the colors bleed into each other creating soft, blurred edges. The sculpture at the top is barely suggested, just a few flicks of the brush. And the brushstrokes around the fountain give it a sense of weight. There’s a physicality to the medium, and it’s almost as if Sargent is sculpting the scene with the paint itself. Think of someone like Cézanne, always trying to capture the essence of a thing, not just its appearance. It’s the same with Sargent here, suggesting more than stating, and in doing so, creating a space for our imagination to fill in the gaps.