Villa Torre Galli: the Loggia

Sargent and his sister Emily were in Italy in the autumn of 1910, staying in and around Florence and Siena. By mid-October, they were joined by artists Wilfrid and Jane de Glehn, English artist William Blake Richmond and his wife, Clara, and Emily’s friend Eliza Wedgwood. The idea of art is at the center of the composition, and both Richmond and Wilfrid de Glehn are depicted at work. Sargent painted the canvas from across the loggia, positioned opposite a mannerist sculpture of Venus that seems to preside over the idyllic scene. The figures are disconnected from one another, each absorbed in his or her own private space and activity. This modern conversation piece represents a leisured, privileged way of life that would disappear with the start of World War I a few short years later.