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John Singer Sargent - An artist in his studio (1904). Oil on canvas
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"There’s this painting that I always keep with me, always. It's one of those little postcards reproductions. I've even made a gold frame for it out of balsa wood. The painting is called "The painter in his studio" and is by John Singer Sargent. The painting depicts a man painting a picture in his studio but his studio is not a artist studio but is the artist's home .. the man has the painting proped up on the bed in the bureau, there is no easel. You get the idea that the only things in the room are the bed, the bureau and the chair upon which the man sits. Much of this composition is given over to laundry and rumpled bed linens. The man is confined to extremely small quarters, the setting is grim and it contrasts with the painting that the man is working on, a landscape. Horses meander through a soft green medow, the trees are lush and full and the blue horizon is dotted with clouds.
Most Sargent comentators dismiss this painting they consider it to be nothing but a silly joke, an artist painting a landscape in his crammed dullful bedroom, but I consider this painting to be a masterpiece because it captures the idea that through art man is able to transcend his dismall swall surroundings.
This painting is not a joke, this artist is not painting a landscape. This artist is painting a window.
Look out this window for a moment, you'll find the view is brathtaking. I've spent my entire life looking for the way to get to the other side of this window. I've been told time and time again that I'm wasting my efforts but I've never given up. I've always known that there is a way to break the glass and crawl out over the window-sill, I've always been certain of it and I've made a vow that I'll never give up."
B.W. Theory of Everything
