Arab Gypsies in a Tent
John Singer Sargent
American Art
Throughout his Bedouin subjects, Sargent relied primarily on the expressive power of the robed figures (women in blue tobs and men in white) animated by sharp, raking light. He consistently used the black tents as a broad compositional framework, both to exert control over the blazing desert light and to create the shallow pictorial spaces he preferred. Here Sargent also employed a more explicit and romanticized orientalist narrative that features a hooded Gypsy, whose tense hands, brilliantly sketched, hover over the round shape of a tray or bowl.
MEDIUM
Opaque and translucent watercolor with graphite underdrawing
DATES
1905–1906
DIMENSIONS
12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm)
frame: 23 7/8 x 29 15/16 x 1 5/16 in. (60.6 x 76 x 3.3 cm) (show scale)
COLLECTIONS
American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
09.807
CREDIT LINE
Purchased by Special Subscription
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
John Singer Sargent (American, born Italy, 1856–1925). Arab Gypsies in a Tent, 1905–1906. Opaque and translucent watercolor with graphite underdrawing, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased by Special Subscription, 09.807 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 09.807_PS6.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 09.807_PS6.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2012
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