To love a painting is to feel that this presence is… not an object but a voice.
~ Andre Malraux ~
Tents at Lake O’Hara
by
John Singer Sargent
My interest in American artist has certainly grown, since being exposed to more of their efforts, on the East Coast.
I was instantly drawn to this piece, when I saw it hanging, at the Wadsworth Atheneum, in Hartford, but had no idea that it was John Singer Sargent’s work – a sad testament to my lack of knowledge and familiarity with the breath of his subjects; I am used to thinking of him as a portraitist.
I suppose one could say that this painting is a portrait of the loan camper, but I find it to be as much about the campsite, as the man sitting, in front of the fire. He does seem rather solemn and I do wonder what he might be thinking, sitting alone in the wilderness; and who will occupy the tent next to his?
Art can never exist without naked beauty displaced.
~ William Blake
