Mountain Scene, John Singer Sargent

In its subject matter and technique, the late landscape watercolor [Mountain Scene] by John Singer Sargent is a major addition to the museum's small group of works by the artist, which includes most notably the imposing 1887 oil painting of Elizabeth Allen Marquand. Like most of Sargent's watercolors, this sheet was executed between 1900 and 1914, when he produced 700 works in this demanding medium. It was painted in the Austrian Tyrol during Sargent's last holiday in the Alps, which was prolonged due to the outbreak of World War I thereby trapping him in Austria from July to November 1914. Nonetheless, Sargent was enormously productive, painting a group of major oils and a large number of water colors, many of which are overtly religious, including cemeteries and wayside shrines with crucifixes. There is a subdued, contemplative tone in this austere view of moun tains, which in its lack of picturesque charm confirms Sargent's avoidance of romantic vistas and his focus on atmospheric effects, reduced to nearly abstract perceptions of tone and color.