Study for Seated Figures, Sargent Metal Print

After visiting Spain in 1879, Sargent began a series of works on the subject of the flamenco performance. This lively oil sketch of passionate musicians is among the dozens of studies Sargent produced in preparation for a series of grand multifigure compositions, the largest and most important of which, El Jaleo (1882), is in the collection of Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Thinly painted on buff-colored ground, the study opens insight into Sargent’s process. Apparently working quickly, he executed the figures to varying degrees of finish. Certain details like the white dress of the clapping dancer are emphasized, while other aspects are only cursorily drawn.