Studies for ‘Dancing Figures’ 1919 - 1920

Here's a drawing, "Studies for 'Dancing Figures'", by John Singer Sargent. It’s just pencil on paper, but you can see him thinking, working it out, right there on the page. I can imagine Sargent, charcoal in hand, circling the figures, trying to catch the light as it moves across their skin. It makes me think about Degas, maybe, and all those dancers he drew; but Sargent's got a quicker, more fluid line. There's a sense of movement, as if the figures might shift any second. Look at the back of the figure on the left, the way the line curves and dips – you can feel the stretch of muscle and bone. Artists are always in conversation with each other, across time, and Sargent here is kind of talking to the old masters but in his own language, you know? It’s not just about how things look, but how they feel.