Devastated Trees [verso] 1918

This drawing of devastated trees was made by John Singer Sargent on paper, and, I imagine, with a very soft pencil. It’s a double scene, a kind of before-and-after, or maybe two different species of tree—one flourishing, the other less so. I sympathize with Sargent here; there is a vulnerability in the rawness of the strokes and the way he has captured something so exposed. You can see the bare bones of these trees, their stark reality laid out for us. I wonder what he was thinking as he made it. Did he feel a kinship with these stripped-back forms? Artists respond to each other all the time, echoing each other’s thoughts across years and continents. I reckon that this study of trees has something in common with the drawings of plant life made by Hilma af Klint. Each artist looks at the natural world and finds a new language for describing it. It’s as if they are both asking: how can we see better?