2-745-258 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Patio, 1908. Sargent was born in Italy, studied in France, and worked chiefly in England, but he never renounced his American citizenship. As a young man, Sargent achieved fame and wealth as a portraitist, but he gradually tired of painting wealthy, superficial aristocrats. In his later years he focused increasingly on watercolour. Along with Winslow Homer, Sargent was the major artist to develop a spontaneous approach toward watercolour. Rather than carefully layering his pigments, he dashed off his paintings in a single sitting, allowing the colours to freely blend together.