On his Holidays, Norway 1901

John Singer Sargent painted this scene of leisure in Norway, using oil paint and a loose, impressionistic style. You can really see the brushstrokes, capturing the movement of the water. It’s like he's trying to freeze a fleeting moment in time. The paint is applied in a way that's both deliberate and spontaneous. Look at the texture of the rocks and the way he layers blues and greens to create the rushing water. It's thick in some places and thin in others. There’s a tension between realism and abstraction – those fish look real enough, but the water is clearly an arrangement of gestural marks! I like how Sargent doesn't try to hide the process. He lets us see how the painting came to be. Sargent reminds me of Manet, in the way that he balances bravura mark-making with realist composition. These guys really started something: this idea that the art is more of a conversation than a pronouncement.