Sketching on the Giudecca 1904

John Singer Sargent made this watercolor, Sketching on the Giudecca, with loose and luminous washes. The blues and browns bleed into each other like memories. It’s not about precision but the feeling of being there, right? Look at how he builds the forms with these quick, transparent layers. The water, especially, is alive with movement. You can almost feel the rocking of the boats. It’s incredible to think that Sargent created so much depth with so little effort. Notice the way he defines the gondola in the foreground with just a few strokes, like it’s emerging from the water, a ghost of Venice. Sargent reminds me of Morandi, actually, in his obsession with a limited range of colors, seeing how much variation can be achieved. With this kind of painting, the more you look, the more it unfolds. It's not just about what's depicted but how it’s depicted, and the feeling it leaves you with.