View from Sorrento; verso: Seascape 22 - 1869

Editor: This is John Singer Sargent's "View from Sorrento," a pencil drawing. It feels like a very immediate, intimate study. What social narratives might Sargent be engaging with here? Curator: Considering Sargent’s position as an expatriate artist, this work engages with themes of privilege and access. The landscape, a tourist destination, becomes a site where class and cultural capital intersect. How does the sketch's unfinished quality reflect these dynamics? Editor: I see what you mean. There's a sense of impermanence, like a fleeting glimpse. Curator: Exactly! It captures a moment of observation, but also hints at the power dynamics inherent in who gets to observe and represent such places. Travel itself, after all, is rarely apolitical. Editor: That gives me a lot to think about regarding who is able to produce representations. Curator: Precisely! The act of seeing and sketching becomes an act of claiming and interpreting.