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A painting of Sargent's two nieces: Rose-Marie and Reine Ormond, during their trip to the French Alps in 1912 when, according to the Cincinnati Art Museum, they all were staying in the village of Abriès. The two girls are perched on the side of an eddy from the cold snow-melt of a mountain stream. They sit crouched, partly on rocks, in the quiet contemplation of fishing. The pose is so organic to any family trip -- you can sense its honesty. Drawn into its participation, as if WE, the viewer, are the girls' uncle. Each, presumably, had Sargent bait their hook, and can't you feel their calmness knowing that he's right there painting them from the grassy bank behind -- available to help in the event of a squirming dripping scaly catch? When the painting was exhibited in Cincinnati, six years later, at the Museum's annual exhibition of American art in 1918, the public fell in love with it. After the show they snatched it up -- is there is any wonder why?
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