John Singer Sargent's Watercolors

By the turn of the 20^th century, painter John Singer Sargent had tired of the society portrait commissions which had made him so prosperous. An obsessive traveler, the Italian-born American put down his oils and turned to watercolors, painting lush landscapes, detailed architecture and exotic tribesmen as he journeyed through Europe and the Middle East. Now a landmark exhibition at the MFA unites two of the artist's most significant watercolor collections for the first time in Boston.

Erica Hirshler, Croll Senior Curator of American Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston