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Lot Essay
A magical scene on the Bay of Naples, Italy, Oxen on the Beach at Baia demonstrates John Singer Sargent’s mastery of watercolor, with its painterly brushwork and subtle effects of light. According to Richard Ormond, “the [present] watercolor emphasizes the economic relationships of the animals, quayside, and boats…[yet] Sargent created a dreamy and romantic atmosphere far removed from the harsh realities of dockside labor. The oxen and the anchored ships are soothing, peaceful images that lull the senses and delight the eye” (“Beasts of Burden” in W. Adelson et al., Sargent Abroad: Figures and Landscapes, New York, 1997, p. 162).
Sargent was very clearly fascinated by his subject, as he dedicated a series of pictures to Oxen throughout the first decade of the 20th Century. Of these watercolors, the present work is by far the most complex and dynamic. Ormond furthers, “Unlike the series of studies of oxen executed around Siena in 1910, in which the context of stable or barn is deliberately vague and mysterious, Sargent secures the oxen here in a realistic marine setting, with several boats moored on a simple quayside, summarily painted figures, a band of sea, and a wider stretch of blue sky with white clouds” (ibid., p. 162). Indeed, here we find Sargent clearly marveling in Italy’s atmosphere and scenery. Two works of a similar theme can be found in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The present work was a gift from the artist to the lawyer Edmund Graff Hamersly of Devon, Pennsylvania, in gratitude for his help with Sargent’s mother’s will.
Sargent was very clearly fascinated by his subject, as he dedicated a series of pictures to Oxen throughout the first decade of the 20th Century. Of these watercolors, the present work is by far the most complex and dynamic. Ormond furthers, “Unlike the series of studies of oxen executed around Siena in 1910, in which the context of stable or barn is deliberately vague and mysterious, Sargent secures the oxen here in a realistic marine setting, with several boats moored on a simple quayside, summarily painted figures, a band of sea, and a wider stretch of blue sky with white clouds” (ibid., p. 162). Indeed, here we find Sargent clearly marveling in Italy’s atmosphere and scenery. Two works of a similar theme can be found in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The present work was a gift from the artist to the lawyer Edmund Graff Hamersly of Devon, Pennsylvania, in gratitude for his help with Sargent’s mother’s will.