Street in Venice

John Singer Sargent painted this view of a narrow Venetian back street on a panel of unusual small size, one of the oil sketches he produced in quantity during his stays in Venice. He depicted a callista, a small alley, in a shimmering of light: whitewashed and crumbling facades, a glimpse of the canal at its mouth, and a rumpled washing line catching the southern sun. Sargent’s loose, rapid handling and his delight in the flicker of Venetian light owe much to the example of Fortuny and, through him, the Spanish masters. So fresh were such small panels to the artist’s English patrons that he exhibited them as brilliantly economical souvenirs of the city, winning the admiration of painters as demanding as Whistler and Monet.