Everybody loves John Singer Sargent. I post a mere fragment of a Sargent watercolor and before I know it, my site stats are through the roof.
All right, people. I know you love representational art and secretly, or even not so secretly, think abstract artists paint as we do because we don’t really know how to paint. You don’t want to see some amorphous blobs of color. You don’t want to see something you don’t even know what the hell it is. You want to see upper-class twits in the fancy duds of yesteryear and landscapes of Venice before it became a tourist trap.
I care about you, my readers, even when you spurn the kind of work I do. So here are some more Sargents. The theme of this miniature online exhibition is: Pictures by Sargent whose subject matter might surprise you (if you think he only painted rich peoples’ portraits).
A Boat In the Waters Off Capri (photo credit)
I don’t blame you for liking Sargent. He really was a very good painter. If you haven’t heard of Anders Zorn or Joaquin Sorolla, you will probably like them too.
Now what’s surprising about this little beachscape? Not that much, but doesn’t look typical for Sargent, even for his watercolors.
Seascape
|
|
|
|
This seascape could almost be a Turner.
Pomegranates
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sargent didn’t paint many pictures without people in them, much less still lifes.
Maybe that’s why his pomegranates look so juicy and fleshy they seem almost human.
Moraine
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Moraine is a geological term for debris caused by a glacier. Makes an unusual subject for a painting, particularly a Sargent.
Marble Quarries at Carrara
|
|
|
|
|
|
More geological subjects: the marble quarry at Carrara, Italy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Thistles
Thistles: This painting is lovely, but if you hadn’t known who the painter was, could you have guessed?
|
|
|
And here we have a depressing little study of a dead bird. Very Goth.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Wrecked Sugar Refinery
|
|
More depressingness:
A wrecked sugar refinery (presumably wrecked by a hurricane).
|
|
|
Crashed Aeroplane
|
Air Crash Investigations, 1916 edition.
The NTSB determines this Nieuport Bebe crashed because of excessive proximity to artist in hayfield.
|
|
|
Below we find a couple of odd works that look more like Alphonse Mucha than John Singer Sargent.
|
Hercules
Chiron and Achilles
So there you have it. Little bits of weirdness from John Singer Sargent that made you think “Huh? Sargent painted that?”
Want to talk about it? That’s what the comment box is for!
Exiled Stardust 