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Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum presents The Inscrutable Eye: Watercolors by Sargent

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum presents The Inscrutable Eye: Watercolors by Sargent in Gardner’s Collection an exhibition on view OCTOBER 31, 2013–JANUARY 20, 2014.

John Singer Sargent San Giuseppe di Castello, Venice, about 1903, Watercolor on paper, 30.6 x 45.8 cm
John Singer Sargent San Giuseppe di Castello, Venice, about 1903, Watercolor on paper, 30.6 x 45.8 cm

The Gardner Museum’s collection offers a rich trove of works by John Singer Sargent. Best known are his legendary Portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner and the monumental El Jaleo, but dozens of other works by Sargent are displayed throughout the galleries. This exhibition offers a look at the vibrant watercolors Sargent made for his own pleasure that were avidly collected by Gardner towards the end of her life. With their brilliant technique and fresh colors, these pictures reveal the stupendous qualities of Sargent’s draftsmanship.

This exhibition brings together for the first time a selection of watercolors and personal artifacts that shed light on the lifelong friendship between Gardner and Sargent based on their shared passion for art.

This selection of works will be on view concurrently with the exhibition John Singer Sargent Watercolors at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The Inscrutable Eye: Watercolors by John Singer Sargent in the Collection of Isabella Stewart Gardner was co-curated by Oliver Tostmann, William and Lia Poorvu Curator of the Collection and Associate Curator Anne-Marie Eze. www.gardnermuseum.org