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Lot Essay
John Singer Sargent formed an abiding love for and fascination with Venice's unique patina and engaging contradictions, which informed his depictions of the mysterious floating city for over thirty years. A Bridge in Venice is a vibrant and dynamic example of the Venice Sargent painted during his nearly annual visits from 1898 to 1913 and serves as a window into the life and travels of one of the most celebrated American artists of the 19th and 20th centuries. Sargent's affair with Venice spanned the majority of his life and came to reflect many of the dichotomies and contradictions inherent to the city.
While some of his earliest imagery focused on the inhabitants, his mature Venetian subjects demonstrated his considerable interest in the architecture of the city. He was particularly struck by the aging façades and peculiar ambiance that defined the city in the 19th century. Yet unlike many artists who painted Venice in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including J.M.W. Turner, Thomas Moran and Walter Launt Palmer, Sargent was less interested in transcribing Venice's fabled vistas and panoramic views, preferring instead more intimate examinations of the canals. In order to view Venice from this new vantage point, Sargent set out in gondolas to approach the city from the water, capturing the vivid imagery in dazzling watercolour tones. These watercolours, such as A Bridge in Venice, have the effect of a snapshot, echoing contemporary photography with theircropped, close-up views, tilted perspective and fluctuating angles. While executing these works on the ever-changing waters of the Grand Canal creates the effect of immediate experience and spontaneity, Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray write, 'nothing is unpremeditated in these water-colours, but Sargent seduces us into imagining that they are spontaneous impressions, captured on the instant as we glide by.' (R. Ormond and E. Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Venetian Figures and Landscapes, 1898-1913, Complete Paintings, vol. VI, New Haven, Connecticut, 2009, p. 121).
In A Bridge in Venice, the richness and complexity of the colours are offset by the fluidity of the transparent strokes which animate the composition, lending a sense of immediacy and modernity. Ormond writes of these later Venetian works, 'Romantic by temperament, increasingly inspired by the principles of classical architecture and modern in his feeling for pictorial surface, and fracture, Sargent responded to the buildings of Venice in a style all his own. The majority of his studies are in watercolour, and it was his fluency and mastery of the medium that enabled him to capture the essence of form and light in works that are bold and colorful...He frequently isolated parts of buildings, taking them out of the context of the whole and subjecting the parts to forensic examination. He looked at buildings from odd angles, compressing and foreshortening them, pressing our noses up against them to make us see Venice in snatches and fragments, as he saw it. In his hands the architecture of Venice becomes the medium of dynamic pictorial construction: of shifting surface patterns, disorienting angles, slicing diagonals, and receding perspectives. Often poking into the foreground of these studies is the prow of his own gondola, the authorial voice introducing the scene and identifying the guide.' (W. Adelson, W.H. Gerdts, E. Kilmurray, R.M. Zorzi, R. Ormond and E. Oustinoff, Sargent's Venice, New Haven, Connecticut, 2006, p. 72). A Bridge in Venice is a superb example of Sargent's Venetian watercolours that manifests both his intimate relationship with the city and his distinctive approach to its intricate grandeur.
This work will be included in the Appendix to John Singer Sargent: Complete Paintings, Volume IX (forthcoming), by Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray in collaboration with Warren Adelson and Elizabeth Oustinoff, published by Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art.
While some of his earliest imagery focused on the inhabitants, his mature Venetian subjects demonstrated his considerable interest in the architecture of the city. He was particularly struck by the aging façades and peculiar ambiance that defined the city in the 19th century. Yet unlike many artists who painted Venice in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including J.M.W. Turner, Thomas Moran and Walter Launt Palmer, Sargent was less interested in transcribing Venice's fabled vistas and panoramic views, preferring instead more intimate examinations of the canals. In order to view Venice from this new vantage point, Sargent set out in gondolas to approach the city from the water, capturing the vivid imagery in dazzling watercolour tones. These watercolours, such as A Bridge in Venice, have the effect of a snapshot, echoing contemporary photography with theircropped, close-up views, tilted perspective and fluctuating angles. While executing these works on the ever-changing waters of the Grand Canal creates the effect of immediate experience and spontaneity, Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray write, 'nothing is unpremeditated in these water-colours, but Sargent seduces us into imagining that they are spontaneous impressions, captured on the instant as we glide by.' (R. Ormond and E. Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Venetian Figures and Landscapes, 1898-1913, Complete Paintings, vol. VI, New Haven, Connecticut, 2009, p. 121).
In A Bridge in Venice, the richness and complexity of the colours are offset by the fluidity of the transparent strokes which animate the composition, lending a sense of immediacy and modernity. Ormond writes of these later Venetian works, 'Romantic by temperament, increasingly inspired by the principles of classical architecture and modern in his feeling for pictorial surface, and fracture, Sargent responded to the buildings of Venice in a style all his own. The majority of his studies are in watercolour, and it was his fluency and mastery of the medium that enabled him to capture the essence of form and light in works that are bold and colorful...He frequently isolated parts of buildings, taking them out of the context of the whole and subjecting the parts to forensic examination. He looked at buildings from odd angles, compressing and foreshortening them, pressing our noses up against them to make us see Venice in snatches and fragments, as he saw it. In his hands the architecture of Venice becomes the medium of dynamic pictorial construction: of shifting surface patterns, disorienting angles, slicing diagonals, and receding perspectives. Often poking into the foreground of these studies is the prow of his own gondola, the authorial voice introducing the scene and identifying the guide.' (W. Adelson, W.H. Gerdts, E. Kilmurray, R.M. Zorzi, R. Ormond and E. Oustinoff, Sargent's Venice, New Haven, Connecticut, 2006, p. 72). A Bridge in Venice is a superb example of Sargent's Venetian watercolours that manifests both his intimate relationship with the city and his distinctive approach to its intricate grandeur.
This work will be included in the Appendix to John Singer Sargent: Complete Paintings, Volume IX (forthcoming), by Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray in collaboration with Warren Adelson and Elizabeth Oustinoff, published by Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art.