Painters of all centuries have loved Venice; they have never failed to come to the Lagoon, to paint it during their voyages.
Sargent, surely, was no exception: visiting Venice for the first time in 1879, he would return more than ten times in forty years. Practitioner of en plein air painting, thanks to the influence of his intimate friend the French artist Monet, Sargent, beyond his atelier studies was able to restore to his light-flecked canvases the impression of the sometimes foggy, sometimes solar soul of Venice, motionless and silent yet bustling and lively.
His voyage is in stages, along Canal Grande, along the rii, seated in a gondola which sometimes wafted along the water and at other times waited at its landing place.
Indeed, Sargent loved to paint in a gondola, from his low seated position.
Thus, the Venice he saw was seen from the water, scenographic and popular like that of the gondoliers: sleepy in the Gondoliers' Siesta, ready to row away again in On the Steps of the Salute. Yet sometimes he also captured Venice from the land: this was even more popular but more secret, such as the people who meet outside a church (Sortie de l'église. Campo San Canciano), or in an osteria (The Sulphur Match).