From: Worcester Art Museum

Although seemingly informal, if not spontaneous, in both design and execution, Venetian Water Carriers is actually carefully conceived. Within a composition centered around rectangular forms (the door and its frame, the well and its base), Sargent subtly balanced the figure of the woman straining to carry a pail with the tilt of the door hanging off its hinges. With equal mastery he varied his technique, using exacting strokes of the brush, fluidly applied, to define individual pavement stones and building up rough layers of color to simulate the peeling plaster wall.

-SES
(Worcester Art Museum)

More on Venetian well-heads
(photo)

Notes:

Exhibitions

• See the Worcester Art Museum
• See Overview of Venice
• See the year in review  1880