River Bank, near Oxford c. 1888

John Singer Sargent painted this riverside scene near Oxford using oil paints. The quick, expressive brushstrokes are immediately apparent, giving the work a sense of spontaneity. But consider too the very nature of oil paint itself. Ground pigments suspended in oil, a slow-drying medium that allows for blending and layering. Sargent wields this material with confidence, building up the image through a series of energetic marks. You can almost see him mixing the colors right on the canvas, capturing the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere. This direct approach to painting, very popular at the time, emphasized the artist's hand and the materiality of the paint, and it moved painting away from the highly finished academic style of earlier generations. Sargent’s work exemplifies the shift towards a more modern sensibility, where the process of making becomes an integral part of the artwork's meaning.