John Singer Sargent (Florence, 1856 - 1925, London)
Letter to Isabella Stewart Gardner from Mount Stephen House, Field, British Columbia, 31 August 1916
Ink on paper, 26.6 x 21 cm (10 1/2 x 8 1/4 in.)
Long Gallery
Commentary
This letter to Isabella Stewart Gardner describes Sargent’s painting of Yoho Falls, in the Canadian Rockies, a work now hanging in the Blue Room of her museum: “I have done a picture of a fantastic waterfall . . . and I am off camping to another place near here where I expect to find other awful sights—whether to your liking or not you shall decide.” Like his friend Henry James, John Singer Sargent renewed his professional energies through travel.