The Third Painting By John Singer Sargent: A Boating Party

Going to the RISD art museum happened to be a little more hassle than we expected it to be. I went there first with Tom on Friday the 22nd and we got there 4:45 which happened to be 15 min before closing. So we had to go home and come back on Tuesday the 26th. Once we finally got in it was very nice, we started on floor 3. The part we started on had very modern architecture with cream white plaster walls and cement floors with lighting from above. The lighting lit the pieces very well as it should and sort of acted like the sun. The architecture fit most of the art that was on this floor because it was more recently done and looked very modern. The staff and students had many pieces in this section. One piece that got my attention was Lenny
It was painted on oil and canvas. Sargent was an American artist who settled in England. He was considered to be the “leading portrait painter of his generation”. I liked this painting because of its laid back nature. It seemed like these were people of a fairly wealthy family because of the way they are dressed. They are just young adults lounging out on the river having fun on a calm, warm, sunny, Sunday afternoon. The boy in the boat is perfectly relaxed with his hand behind his head and his right leg in his lady’s boat so she doesn’t float away. It just all looks very relaxing and shows how we can have fun without electronics. The lady in the middle is clearly the centerpiece, as she looks beautiful in a white dress and a nice coat, gloves and hat. She looks brighter than everyone else drawing your eyes toward her. My original assumption was that this was portrayed in Louisiana because of the southern style cloths and the colonial style house but on a second look I’m really not sure. This painting made you sit there and think about what it would be like in their position, which captured my full attention. I thought Sargent did a very good job with that and this