Venetian Glass Workers

1880–82

Trained in Paris, John Singer Sargent traveled to Spain, the Netherlands, and Italy to study how painters such as Diego Velázquez and Frans Hals captured the effects of light and rendered figures in space. This painting is one of several genre scenes featuring glass-bead workers that Sargent executed in the early 1880s. The view of the shop is dark except for the strokes of light green and silvery paint that describe the canes of glass.

Public domain · CC0
Free to download and reuse. Image courtesy of Art Institute of Chicago.

Artist

John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925)

Date

1880–82

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

56.5 × 84.5 cm (22 1/4 × 33 1/4 in.)

Origin

Venice

Collection

Art Institute of Chicago

Credit

Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection