LINEA
Null Linea | John Singer Sargent
Upon initial observation of this painting, it appears to be messy and abstract with thick, loosely applied streaks of paint at various angles, depicting nothing recognizable.
However, upon taking a step back, the loose brushstrokes resolve into a realistic representation of a young woman wrapped in a yellow shawl, lying on a couch in an elegant room.
This painting, entitled "Sweet Afternoon Repose," is the work of the renowned painter John Singer Sargent. Sargent's genius lies in his confident use of loose brushstrokes, which produces a realism that is more true than finely detailed painting.
Sargent's confidence in this technique is derived from his teacher, Carolus Duran, a 19th-century French painter who taught his students to abandon outlines and focus on capturing the colors and tonal values of what they saw in painting.
Duran's students had to learn to look at the world differently, flattening their sight to let objects melt into their values and colors, and then get these shapes onto the canvas in paint. They were taught to never work on one section for too long to avoid throwing off the value ratios, as the painting is always a delicate series of relationships.
The result is a two-dimensional way of seeing that produces paintings that are more three-dimensional than anything that began with an outline. This method is partly derived from Diego Velasquez, a Spanish painter who lived 200 years prior, who revolutionized the way of capturing his impression of reality.
Sargent, although not considered a capital "I" Impressionist, was part of a broader group of lowercase "i" impressionists. He rapidly absorbed Duran's teaching and soon exceeded him, as exemplified in his extraordinary portrait of Duran, which was honored by the Paris Salon of 1879 when Sargent was just 23. Sargent's exceptional gifts were recognized, and he quickly became known as the greatest portraitist who ever lived, capturing all the glamour of the late Victorian and Edwardian ages. However, Sargent was not just a portraitist. He embarked on what is considered his greatest work, "Carnation Lily Lily Rose," which captures the interplay of light and colors of Chinese lanterns hanging amid the foliage on a summer evening along the Thames.
Sargent fused the lessons of Duran, Velasquez, the Impressionists, and the Realists with his own singular talent to forge a style in which mere suggestions laid down with a practiced looseness resolve at the right distance into the world.
