Study for Belgium's Feet, verso: Study for Britain, for "Coming of the Americans," Widener Library, Harvard University 1921 - 1922

Editor: This is John Singer Sargent's sketch, "Study for Belgium's Feet," a preparatory work for a larger mural. The figures seem suspended, incomplete... What do you see in this collection of hands, feet, and soldiers? Curator: It’s like a painter’s meditation, isn’t it? Sargent is teasing out the essence of these figures, deciding what to emphasize. The hands, so expressive, and those focused gazes of the soldiers... almost a plea. It whispers of the weight of war, don’t you think? Editor: Yes, there's a vulnerability in the unfinished quality. I hadn't considered that. Curator: The emptiness around them amplifies it. It's like Sargent is asking us to fill in the blanks, to feel the absence. A poignant study, indeed. Editor: I see that now; it's more affecting than a polished painting might be.