Spanish Fountain 1912

John Singer Sargent made this watercolor of a Spanish Fountain, and looking at it, I'm struck by its shimmering light and delicate washes of color. I can imagine Sargent, standing in the Spanish sun, quickly capturing the scene before him. Did he feel the need to make a painting about the feeling of water as it cools the air? The blues and greens of the water are just gorgeous and contrast with the warm, earthy tones of the stone fountain. The way he's handled the paint, so fluid and transparent, it feels so intuitive. I keep thinking about how each brushstroke seems to capture the essence of light and movement. I think of him moving from painting portraits of society's elite and these more relaxed paintings. Sargent is an artist who looks and looks and then makes a painting about the feeling he gets about what he is looking at. You can feel that. It reminds us that artists are constantly observing and interpreting the world around them.