Rushing Brook

Artist:: John Singer Sargent (American, Florence 1856–1925 London)

Date:: ca. 1904–11

Medium:: Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on off-white wove paper

Dimensions:: 18 7/16 x 12 3/8 in. (46.8 x 31.4 cm)

Classification:: Drawings

Credit Line:: Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1950

Accession Number:: 50.130.80i

Not on view

The earliest watercolors by Sargent in the Museum’s collection date from 1865–68, when the artist was about ten years old. From childhood, watercolor afforded him a versatile medium with which to record the people and places that captured his attention. Although the inscription on the verso, which is not in Sargent’s hand, suggests that this bold watercolor was painted at Purtud, north of Courmayeur, Italy, the site could well be any of the other alpine regions the artist visited after 1900.

Inscription: [at lower right]: J. S. S.; [on verso at upper center]: 3/6 [encircled]; [at lower left]: NMW; J. S. S. Purtud

the artist, until d. 1925; his sisters, Mrs. Francis Ormond (Violet Sargent) and Miss Emily Sargent, until 1936 (Emily Sargent's death); Mrs. Francis Ormond, until 1950

Essays
America Comes of Age: 1876-1900
American Impressionism
Americans in Paris, 1860-1900
John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
Nineteenth-Century American Drawings

Timelines
The United States and Canada, 1900 A.D.-present

"John Singer Sargent in The Metropolitan Museum of Art": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 57, no. 4 (Spring, 2000)
John Singer Sargent: A Selection of Drawings and Watercolors from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
American Drawings and Watercolors in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: John Singer Sargent

Department

American Paintings and Sculpture (5,361)

Artist / Maker / Culture

John Singer Sargent (662)

Object Type / Material