Saint-Malo
1875
Before he became the darling of high society portraiture, a teenage John Singer Sargent was busy filling sketchbooks during his travels. In this quick study from May 1875, he captures a two-masted ship sailing past the jagged, shadowed fortifications of St. Malo, France—a historic haven for privateers and pirates. You can see his handwritten note in the bottom corner, acting like a visual postcard from his youth. It shows the young artist training his eye on light and structure long before he started painting velvet dresses for the rich and famous.
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