Sirmione 1913

John Singer Sargent made this watercolor, Sirmione, with washes of blue, yellow, and brown, and boy, can you feel the air. The sky is heavy with that looming rain-feeling, smudged with strokes that are so evocative, you can almost smell the ozone. I imagine Sargent, squinting, trying to capture that particular light just before a storm hits. And then those vertical strokes in the foreground? Are they reflections on water, or some kind of architectural feature? Or both? It’s like he's inviting us to feel the precariousness of seeing, the way things shimmer and shift. This reminds me of Turner's landscapes, but with a touch that feels more immediate. The light here is so fleeting. Painters are always talking to each other, you know, across time, across styles. It's about feeling the world and then trying to pin it down with paint, knowing full well you can't. It’s a testament to how painting is a constant conversation, a way of seeing and feeling that’s always evolving.