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Lot Essay
In 1876, John Singer Sargent travelled to the United States to view the Centennial celebrations in Philadelphia, as well as receive his American citizenship. The following year he travelled to Italy and in the autumn of 1878, visited the island of Capri for the second time. There, he found abundant subject matter in the native peasant life and picturesque environment and met up with several other artists, who were living and painting in the abandoned monastery of the convent of Santa Teresa.
In Capri Girl on a Rooftop, Sargent depicts a woman on a rooftop, with golden, suffused light haloing her head. The long cast shadows suggest that it is evening. Sargent has captured this everyday scene, quickly recording the woman in her natural surroundings. The white architecture and curved rooftop at right is traditional to Capri. According to Richard Ormond, the model for Girl on a Rooftop is possibly Rosina Ferrara as “her shock of hair falling forward is characteristic,” though a definitive identification cannot be made from the shadowed face. (R. Ormond, E. Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1874-1882, vol. IV, New Haven, Connecticut, 2012, p. 167) The English artist Frank Hyde (1849-1937) facilitated Sargent’s studio space at the Santa Teresa convent and introduced Sargent to Rosina, a local teenager who was a favored model for artists on the island due to her fluency in French, exceptional posing and exotic beauty. Rosina would become Sargent’s preferred model and is featured in the artist’s most iconic and inspired works from Capri, including another work of the same year and title, Capri Girl on a Rooftop (1878, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas), where she is depicted in a striking dance position on the rooftop.
Capri Girl on a Rooftop superbly demonstrates Sargent's fresh and original approach to plein air painting. The scene is infused with warm hues, which lend a distinct evening light that highlights the imposing cast shadows of the architecture falling on the broad rooftop. Sargent’s fascination with the effects of light was the result of his relationship with the Impressionist artists in Paris. In Capri Girl on a Rooftop, Sargent luxuriates in the effects of diminishing light, carefully observing and capturing its subtleties at a particular moment. The broad brushstrokes add movement to the composition and suggest that the artist was working quickly, as if racing to apply the paint before the setting sun was lost behind the horizon.
Sargent advised his students, “Arrange a composition decoratively, easy and accidental.” (as quoted in “Venice,” Sargent Abroad: Figures and Landscapes, p. 188) Following his own advise, in Capri Girl on a Rooftop, it appears Sargent has just come upon this spot and decided to paint it. Bruce Robertson notes of Sargent’s work, "The nature of both his success and his genius may be said to consist of a delicate balance between advanced painting and traditional subject, a balancing act he carried on in most aspects of his life." (Sargent and Italy, Princeton, New Jersey, 2003, p. 9) It was this combination that produced his best works, including Capri Girl on a Rooftop, transforming a quotidian scene of a local Capri woman into a magnificent exploration of the effects of sunlight and demonstrating the artist's daring and modern technique.
The present work retains a painted sketch on the reverse entitled Man in Gondola Sketching.
In Capri Girl on a Rooftop, Sargent depicts a woman on a rooftop, with golden, suffused light haloing her head. The long cast shadows suggest that it is evening. Sargent has captured this everyday scene, quickly recording the woman in her natural surroundings. The white architecture and curved rooftop at right is traditional to Capri. According to Richard Ormond, the model for Girl on a Rooftop is possibly Rosina Ferrara as “her shock of hair falling forward is characteristic,” though a definitive identification cannot be made from the shadowed face. (R. Ormond, E. Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1874-1882, vol. IV, New Haven, Connecticut, 2012, p. 167) The English artist Frank Hyde (1849-1937) facilitated Sargent’s studio space at the Santa Teresa convent and introduced Sargent to Rosina, a local teenager who was a favored model for artists on the island due to her fluency in French, exceptional posing and exotic beauty. Rosina would become Sargent’s preferred model and is featured in the artist’s most iconic and inspired works from Capri, including another work of the same year and title, Capri Girl on a Rooftop (1878, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas), where she is depicted in a striking dance position on the rooftop.
Capri Girl on a Rooftop superbly demonstrates Sargent's fresh and original approach to plein air painting. The scene is infused with warm hues, which lend a distinct evening light that highlights the imposing cast shadows of the architecture falling on the broad rooftop. Sargent’s fascination with the effects of light was the result of his relationship with the Impressionist artists in Paris. In Capri Girl on a Rooftop, Sargent luxuriates in the effects of diminishing light, carefully observing and capturing its subtleties at a particular moment. The broad brushstrokes add movement to the composition and suggest that the artist was working quickly, as if racing to apply the paint before the setting sun was lost behind the horizon.
Sargent advised his students, “Arrange a composition decoratively, easy and accidental.” (as quoted in “Venice,” Sargent Abroad: Figures and Landscapes, p. 188) Following his own advise, in Capri Girl on a Rooftop, it appears Sargent has just come upon this spot and decided to paint it. Bruce Robertson notes of Sargent’s work, "The nature of both his success and his genius may be said to consist of a delicate balance between advanced painting and traditional subject, a balancing act he carried on in most aspects of his life." (Sargent and Italy, Princeton, New Jersey, 2003, p. 9) It was this combination that produced his best works, including Capri Girl on a Rooftop, transforming a quotidian scene of a local Capri woman into a magnificent exploration of the effects of sunlight and demonstrating the artist's daring and modern technique.
The present work retains a painted sketch on the reverse entitled Man in Gondola Sketching.