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Lot Essay
Although John Singer Sargent was an inveterate traveler, it was Venice where he felt most at home. British author and childhood friend of Sargent, Vernon Lee, observed of Venice that, "the very beauty and poetry in Venice, its shimmering colours and sliding forms, as of a past whose heroism is overlaid by suspicion and pleasure seeking...the things which Venice offers to the eye and the fancy conspire to melt and mar our soul...with the enervation also of 'too much'magnificence and squalor." (as quoted in B. Robertson, Sargent and Italy, Los Angeles, California, 2003, p. 13) It was this combination of its present day beauty and its scandalous past that drew Sargent to Venice time and time again, producing his best works including The Grand Canal, Venice.
Sargent was born in Florence to American parents who traveled throughout Europe, returning most frequently to Italy. In 1880, Sargent established himself in Venice, inspired by the architecture, light and Renaissance art, taking a studio at Palazzo Rezzonico. Sargent wandered the streets painting images of the people in the back streets and hidden corners of Venice. Deciding to put his efforts into portraiture, the artist shortly left for Paris and London, but in 1898, he returned once again to Italy, this time painting the more picturesque locales frequented by tourists. Rather than painting figures, the artist primarily painted uninhabited scenes of Venice. "Sargent's Venice is conspicuously depopulated. Its inhabitants are implied by their traces: moored boats, deserted footbridges, and vacant palace windows and balconies." (D.S. Janis, "Venice," Sargent Abroad: Figures and Landscapes, New York, 1997, p. 186)
In The Grand Canal, Venice, the artist renders a scene of the architecturally intricate and colorful buildings lining the canal. From 1898 to 1913, when he visited Venice, Sargent primarily painted in watercolor with a dashing technique that emphasized his rich color and bravura brushwork. The medium allowed the artist to capture the effects of light and the movement of water quickly and proficiently. "There are few artists who have responded with greater visual excitement to the world of light and form," writes Donaldson Hoopes. "Sargent's watercolors obey the requirement of art in the most important way: they remain fresh forever, they endure." (Sargent Watercolors, New York, 1970, p. 20) His mastery in this medium is evident in The Grand Canal, Venice as the artist paints with the broken, fluid brushwork characteristic of his finest compositions. The work is freely sketched, as if the artist sought to capture a fleeting image of sunlight on the water and stone facades using flowing strokes in saturated blues, purples, reds and yellows against the pale blue and pink washes of the sky.
Over the years, many critics have noted Sargent's seemingly effortless ability to paint in watercolor. The artist's friend and early biographer, Evan Charteris, remarked on the startling sense of spontaneity in these works: "They have a happy air of impromptu," he wrote, "of the artist having come upon a scene at a particular moment and there and then translated it into paint. He set his face against anything like 'picture-making;' his watercolors are fragmentary -- pieces of the visible world broken off because they appealed to his eye. His power is displayed in the supremacy of his drawing, the opulence of his colour, the skill of his statement, finite as it often is, and the glowing warmth of his sunlit scenes. And in these he excels, not so much by the subtlety of his omissions as by the harmony of his assertions and his exuberant objectivity." (John Sargent, New York, 1927, p. 224)
Sargent advised his students to "Arrange a composition decoratively, easy and accidental." (as quoted in "Venice," Sargent Abroad: Figures and Landscapes, p. 188) In The Grand Canal, Venice, it appears Sargent has just accidentally come upon this spot and decided to paint it. Sargent has positioned himself at an angle so that he just captures a corner of the Palazzo Corner Spinelli. The other buildings lining the canal are painted with broad, suggestive brushstrokes while Sargent takes great care to paint the details of the Palazzo's columns and balconies, making it just barely identifiable. The artist presents a view that is cropped and close-up, distorting the scene in foreshortening. Sargent often painted from a gondola and as he floated through the city, his view is usually from below looking up. In The Grand Canal, Venice, the artist has masterfully painted the perspective of the long recession along the canal guided by the poles that lead the viewer into the composition, while capturing the beautiful architectural details of the Palazzo Corner Spinelli.
In The Grand Canal, Venice, Sargent paints a rare, wide view of the canal with every hallmark that makes Sargent's watercolors of Venice so successful. "Sargent's watercolors and oils evoke an earlier Venice of architectural magnificence amid quiet, watery mystery. Stylistically, however, he brought to the city a personal modernist outlook that exploited daring perspectives and fragmented views usually seen from the moving vantage point of his floating studio-the gondola. Sargent's handling of perspective, linked to a sense of motion, is the most innovative aspect of the Venice works." ("Venice," Sargent Abroad: Figures and Landscapes, p. 214) Combined with his mastery of watercolor, The Grand Canal, Venice is one of Sargent's finest portrayals of his beloved city.
The present work was a gift from Sargent to Gertie Lewis for her wedding in December 1902. This festive affair was attended by many creative luminaries including Henry James, who for her wedding gave a bound copy of his latest novel, The Wings of the Dove. Sargent was also a friend of the Lewis family, having been a dinner guest at their home many times beginning in 1884 and later painted portraits of Gertie's parents, George and Elizabeth. Another frequent dinner guest of the Lewis family was Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, who painted portraits of Gertie and her sister, Katie.
Sargent was born in Florence to American parents who traveled throughout Europe, returning most frequently to Italy. In 1880, Sargent established himself in Venice, inspired by the architecture, light and Renaissance art, taking a studio at Palazzo Rezzonico. Sargent wandered the streets painting images of the people in the back streets and hidden corners of Venice. Deciding to put his efforts into portraiture, the artist shortly left for Paris and London, but in 1898, he returned once again to Italy, this time painting the more picturesque locales frequented by tourists. Rather than painting figures, the artist primarily painted uninhabited scenes of Venice. "Sargent's Venice is conspicuously depopulated. Its inhabitants are implied by their traces: moored boats, deserted footbridges, and vacant palace windows and balconies." (D.S. Janis, "Venice," Sargent Abroad: Figures and Landscapes, New York, 1997, p. 186)
In The Grand Canal, Venice, the artist renders a scene of the architecturally intricate and colorful buildings lining the canal. From 1898 to 1913, when he visited Venice, Sargent primarily painted in watercolor with a dashing technique that emphasized his rich color and bravura brushwork. The medium allowed the artist to capture the effects of light and the movement of water quickly and proficiently. "There are few artists who have responded with greater visual excitement to the world of light and form," writes Donaldson Hoopes. "Sargent's watercolors obey the requirement of art in the most important way: they remain fresh forever, they endure." (Sargent Watercolors, New York, 1970, p. 20) His mastery in this medium is evident in The Grand Canal, Venice as the artist paints with the broken, fluid brushwork characteristic of his finest compositions. The work is freely sketched, as if the artist sought to capture a fleeting image of sunlight on the water and stone facades using flowing strokes in saturated blues, purples, reds and yellows against the pale blue and pink washes of the sky.
Over the years, many critics have noted Sargent's seemingly effortless ability to paint in watercolor. The artist's friend and early biographer, Evan Charteris, remarked on the startling sense of spontaneity in these works: "They have a happy air of impromptu," he wrote, "of the artist having come upon a scene at a particular moment and there and then translated it into paint. He set his face against anything like 'picture-making;' his watercolors are fragmentary -- pieces of the visible world broken off because they appealed to his eye. His power is displayed in the supremacy of his drawing, the opulence of his colour, the skill of his statement, finite as it often is, and the glowing warmth of his sunlit scenes. And in these he excels, not so much by the subtlety of his omissions as by the harmony of his assertions and his exuberant objectivity." (John Sargent, New York, 1927, p. 224)
Sargent advised his students to "Arrange a composition decoratively, easy and accidental." (as quoted in "Venice," Sargent Abroad: Figures and Landscapes, p. 188) In The Grand Canal, Venice, it appears Sargent has just accidentally come upon this spot and decided to paint it. Sargent has positioned himself at an angle so that he just captures a corner of the Palazzo Corner Spinelli. The other buildings lining the canal are painted with broad, suggestive brushstrokes while Sargent takes great care to paint the details of the Palazzo's columns and balconies, making it just barely identifiable. The artist presents a view that is cropped and close-up, distorting the scene in foreshortening. Sargent often painted from a gondola and as he floated through the city, his view is usually from below looking up. In The Grand Canal, Venice, the artist has masterfully painted the perspective of the long recession along the canal guided by the poles that lead the viewer into the composition, while capturing the beautiful architectural details of the Palazzo Corner Spinelli.
In The Grand Canal, Venice, Sargent paints a rare, wide view of the canal with every hallmark that makes Sargent's watercolors of Venice so successful. "Sargent's watercolors and oils evoke an earlier Venice of architectural magnificence amid quiet, watery mystery. Stylistically, however, he brought to the city a personal modernist outlook that exploited daring perspectives and fragmented views usually seen from the moving vantage point of his floating studio-the gondola. Sargent's handling of perspective, linked to a sense of motion, is the most innovative aspect of the Venice works." ("Venice," Sargent Abroad: Figures and Landscapes, p. 214) Combined with his mastery of watercolor, The Grand Canal, Venice is one of Sargent's finest portrayals of his beloved city.
The present work was a gift from Sargent to Gertie Lewis for her wedding in December 1902. This festive affair was attended by many creative luminaries including Henry James, who for her wedding gave a bound copy of his latest novel, The Wings of the Dove. Sargent was also a friend of the Lewis family, having been a dinner guest at their home many times beginning in 1884 and later painted portraits of Gertie's parents, George and Elizabeth. Another frequent dinner guest of the Lewis family was Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, who painted portraits of Gertie and her sister, Katie.