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An Out-of-Doors Study

John Singer Sargent American

Not on view

French painter Paul Helleu (1859–1927) and his young wife, Alice (1870–1933), were among the visitors to Fladbury Rectory in Worcestershire, where Sargent was staying during the summer of 1889. This study of an artist working outdoors is a painting about the act of painting. Sargent carefully records the precise pose of Paul’s hand and his intense concentration as he applies paint to his canvas, while Alice appears listless as she gazes away from her husband. It is also an experimental work, and the composition is deliberately constructed around the diagonal of the red canoe and the easel. Within this plein-air painting, Sargent creates careful portrait studies of his friends.

An Out-of-Doors Study, John Singer Sargent (American, Florence 1856–1925 London), Oil on canvas, American

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