Villa Torlonia Fountain 1907

John Singer Sargent made this watercolour painting of a fountain in Villa Torlonia with loose brushstrokes in shades of dark green and brown. I imagine him standing there in the Roman sunshine, squinting, trying to capture the light filtering through the trees. It's like a snapshot, a quick impression of a moment, you know? The fountain in the foreground feels solid, but the trees behind are all blurry and indistinct. It reminds me of those plein air painters, like Monet, trying to capture the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere. I bet Sargent was thinking about Velasquez and all those other painters who came before him, trying to figure out how to make paint look like real life. But he wasn't just copying what he saw. He was adding his own spin, his own way of seeing the world. It makes you think about painting as a conversation, with artists borrowing and stealing and riffing off each other across time.