Day 298- Sargent in Egypt

 May 12, 2022

Gallery 770 is devoted to works by American Impressionists. In truth, most of them don't strike me as all that Impressionist, or as all that noteworthy.  I am, however, interested to learn that John Singer Sargent, several of whose canvases hang here, met Monet in 1876 and was inspired to experiment with the style.

Furthermore, while I had always thought of Sargent as the quintessential society painter, it turns out that he also painted people at work.  One of his paintings depicts quarrymen at Carrara.  Another, the subject of today's entry, is entitled "Egyptians Raising Water from the Nile."

According to the signage, Sargent received a commission to paint a mural cycle for the Boston Public Library and decided that its theme would be the history of religion - by which, as a Google search reveals, he meant Near Eastern religions (Egyptian and Assyrian belief systems, Judaism, Christianity). Google also tells me that one of the murals provoked considerable controversy: it depicts the Synagogue as a blindfolded old woman who has collapsed on the floor, her crown fallen, the structure around her in ruins.  In 1922, shortly after the cycle was completed, bills were introduced in the Massachusetts state legislature to paint over this portion, Apparently, the antisemitism I noted in the last entry was not always so genteel - or covert.

The  mural cycle occupied almost 30 years of Sargent's life, and early on,  the commission prompted Sargent to travel to biblical lands and to record scenes suggestive of ancient times.  This small canvas (it measures perhaps 26 inches high and 24 inches wide) is an example. To draw water, the figure at the right  of the image uses a simple rope-and-bucket system, a technology that could well have been in use for thousands of years; the worker's contorted body and well-muscled arms suggest that he is hard at work. The palette is simple: blue for the figures' clothing, tan for the sand on both banks of the river, a combination of the two for the river itself, to evoke its muddy waters, and dusty green for the half-desiccated palm fronds in the foreground.  One broad white stroke in the upper lefthand corner is sufficient to  indicate a felucca. The painting appears to be a quick sketch, but the image is powerful.