Two Girls With Parasols

7:00 AM

John Singer Sargent, Two Girls with Parasols, 1889. 

In John Singer Sargent's career he painted over 900 oil paintings and 2,000 watercolors, which doesn't even include the endless sketches and charcoal drawings. After the scandal of Madame X, Sargent's portrait career ended in Paris but eventually grew in Britain and America. Sargent painted Two Girls with Parasols five years after his strapless gal got him in hot water. The tree and the woman in the center create a barrier from the lush green on the right and the rough browns on the left. The contrast of the colors is not harsh, instead it flows.

Sargent's brushstrokes smoothly sweep across the canvas, which allows the colors to not only stand on their own, but look like they belong. These strokes allow the painting to move, not just because the women are facing left. The brushstrokes start in the top right and slide down to the bottom left, aiding the woman in pushing the viewer's eye. 

The most interesting feature of this painting is the faceless women. Is he allowing the identity to be anyone, or is he hiding the true identity from the scandal of Madame X? Is Sargent's reputation still harmed five years later, that he wouldn't paint the faces of his models? The unrevealing dresses, shade from the tree, and shade from the parasol seems to put the women in the dark; they even seem constrained. Even though there is space for the action to move, the shadows and the clothing make the women timid. Their gaze does not meet the viewer (the lack of eyes help), and it seems to be a passing moment of hiding.

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