Fountain of Neptune

Best known for his society portraits, John Singer Sargent was likewise adept at landscapes and architectural studies, practices that he increasingly pursued after 1900 in both oil and watercolor. Fountain of Neptune depicts a portion of the famous 16th-century fountain in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence. Painting his composition on site, en plein air, Sargent chose an up-close, truncated view of the sculpture, focusing not on the god of Neptune, but on the twisting, muscular bodies of other bronze figures adorning the fountain. The play of light on intricate surfaces of architecture and decoration is the composition’s principal subject.