May 3, 2016 11:00 EST
Impressionist & Modern Art
75
John Singer Sargent
American, 1856-1925
Val D'Aosta: A Mountain Stream, circa 1907
Stamped with the artist's estate stamp JSS on the reverse
Oil on canvas
17 1/8 x 21 1/4 inches
Provenance:
M. Knoedler & Co., New York, no. 16308
Literature:
Richard Ormond and Eileen Kilmartin, John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1900-1907, Complete Paintings, Volume VII, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012, no. 1409 (as untraced), illus. p. 296
Richard Ormond describes the present work, the location of which was unknown when his catalogue raisonne of Sargent's work was published, as "a sketchy view of a stream, almost certainly the brook at Peuterey. In common with his other studies of the brook, the artist allows no horizon line to interrupt his close-up view of stream and brook." [John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1900-1907, Complete Paintings, Volume VII, p. 296]
From 1900 to 1907, John Singer Sargent traveled extensively, visiting the Middle East as well as numerous destinations in Europe that included Spain, Norway, and the Alps. Tiring of formal portraiture, he delighted in creating a virtual travelogue of paintings that documented his trips. A visit to the Val D'Aosta in Italy inspired numerous works in oil and watercolor, several depicting crystalline Alpine waters playing over rocks and forming eddies in pools. These compositions, freely painted with robust brushstrokes, some depicting the rushing waters at close range, are nearly modern in sensibility. Val D'Aosta, clearly inspired by this sojourn, shows Sargent at his most fluid, the composition rendered in a vibrant palette of plums, green and gold.
John Singer Sargent
American, 1856-1925
Val D'Aosta: A Mountain Stream, circa 1907
Stamped with the artist's estate stamp JSS on the reverse
Oil on canvas
17 1/8 x 21 1/4 inches
Provenance:
M. Knoedler & Co., New York, no. 16308
Literature:
Richard Ormond and Eileen Kilmartin, John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1900-1907, Complete Paintings, Volume VII, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2012, no. 1409 (as untraced), illus. p. 296
Richard Ormond describes the present work, the location of which was unknown when his catalogue raisonne of Sargent's work was published, as "a sketchy view of a stream, almost certainly the brook at Peuterey. In common with his other studies of the brook, the artist allows no horizon line to interrupt his close-up view of stream and brook." [John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1900-1907, Complete Paintings, Volume VII, p. 296]
From 1900 to 1907, John Singer Sargent traveled extensively, visiting the Middle East as well as numerous destinations in Europe that included Spain, Norway, and the Alps. Tiring of formal portraiture, he delighted in creating a virtual travelogue of paintings that documented his trips. A visit to the Val D'Aosta in Italy inspired numerous works in oil and watercolor, several depicting crystalline Alpine waters playing over rocks and forming eddies in pools. These compositions, freely painted with robust brushstrokes, some depicting the rushing waters at close range, are nearly modern in sensibility. Val D'Aosta, clearly inspired by this sojourn, shows Sargent at his most fluid, the composition rendered in a vibrant palette of plums, green and gold.
Unlined. Touches of inpaint at the upper and lower right, and the upper left, corner. A 1/4 inch area of inpaint in the upper right quadrant.
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Auction: Impressionist & Modern Art, May 3, 2016
