Street Scene, Venice

Emily Sargent, a talented amateur watercolorist who trained informally alongside and with her older brother, John Singer Sargent, painted for pleasure rather than professional acclaim. She moved in the same cosmopolitan artistic circles as her famed sibling, and actively promoted his career. One of his most faithful sketching companions, she regularly accompanied him on his travels. Emily Sargent painted with greater frequency after 1900, often in the same locales where her brother created his most celebrated watercolors: Venice, the mountains of northern Italy and Switzerland, Spain, Egypt, and Morocco. In this close-up view of a Venetian streetscape, a dark covered space yields to sun-soaked walls. Ordinary details, includinghanging laundry, benches, and a cart, are indicated with subtle, atmospheric brushstrokes.