Study of Six Men Rowing a Boat; verso: Two Seated Men 19th-20th century

Curator: This is John Singer Sargent's "Study of Six Men Rowing a Boat," a pencil drawing currently housed at the Harvard Art Museums. It strikes me as quite unfinished, almost ephemeral. Editor: Yes, raw. You can almost feel the graphite on the paper. What's interesting is how Sargent reduces the figures to pure line. The men are stripped down to their essence as laboring bodies. Curator: And that reduction makes it universally applicable. It speaks to the broader social context of labor and leisure in the late 19th century, particularly considering Sargent’s portraiture of the wealthy. Editor: I agree, but there's something democratic about focusing on the act of rowing itself, the repetition of the stroke, the shared physical exertion—the shared making of movement. Curator: A compelling point. Sargent often explored themes of social class and identity, and this study, with its focus on collective effort, really encapsulates those ideas. Editor: It makes you wonder, what boat are they rowing, and what is their cargo, both literal and figurative? Curator: Indeed, it gives us a glimpse into the artist's process of trying to capture the human spirit. Editor: Ultimately, a very telling sketch about the shared labor and human condition.