John Singer Sargent at State Library

What a relief! 

The temprature dropped to 19 °C today, and raining. 

So, I decided again to confine myself in the library. 

Richard Ormind and Elaine Kilmurray have been engaged in this monumental project, to catalogue every single one of Sargent's painting. 

This one, Volume VIII, published by Yale University Press, is the only one the library possesses, unfortunately. 

 

The book is just gorgeous. There are far more watercolours than oils, understandable considering the fact that  this is a period when Sargent travelled extensively. 

There are some complaints from reviewers (oil painters) in Amazon about this, but, it didn't bother me at all. I loved immediacy of his rendering landscape in watercolours. I can see his creative process more vividly. 

I also like the book's format, whereby each painting and text are laid out in a simple way, quite often in a same page, so that I don't have to turn pages back and forwards. 

Of course, as a result of this, painting are a bit small, but, it doesn't bother me at all. 

With tons of historical information and relevant photographs, this is one of the best books on Sargent I've ever come across. Gigantic stimulus to visual sensation. 

I love to have a look at other volumes as well.