Figure Studies of Horses, Children, and Women 19th-20th century

Curator: This is John Singer Sargent’s “Figure Studies of Horses, Children, and Women,” part of the collection here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: There’s an immediacy to this work. It’s like we're peering into the artist's sketchbook, seeing his raw, unfiltered thoughts take shape. Curator: Indeed. Sargent, known for his society portraits, often used sketches like these to explore form and composition. Note how his elite clientele and their accouterments are absent here, replaced by the mundane. Editor: The sketchiness speaks volumes about process. You see the artist grappling with line and form, focusing on the materiality of representation itself rather than polished illusionism. It foregrounds the labor. Curator: And it humanizes Sargent, doesn’t it? We see the artist working through ideas, unburdened by the expectations of the art market, allowing the drawings to reveal the artist's intimate process. Editor: Right, it’s a privileged view, disrupting the myth of effortless artistic genius by showing us the workings of art. These images show us how he made his art in the era's artistic and material culture. Curator: Seeing Sargent's sketches really changes how I understand the man and his work. Editor: It’s a reminder that even masters like Sargent were, at their core, artisans wrestling with materials and ideas.