The Breakfast Table

Sargent told friends he wished to “cultivate an ever continuous power of observation.” His perceptive gifts are on display in this private domestic scene in which a young woman (the artist’s sister) peels an orange while reading a book. Through loose brushwork punctuated with short daubs of pink and yellow, Sargent depicts Violet at a breakfast table laden with the gleaming shapes and surfaces of fine, Victorian-era tableware, including ceramics, crystal, crisp white linens, and shimmering, reflective silver. The condensed composition and Violet’s turned gaze suggest morning light may be the true subject of the painting. As such, Sargent’s work exists in conversation with contemporaneous paintings of interior arrangements by Degas, Manet, Monet, and Whistler, exemplifying his friendship with, and regard for, the formal innovations of these “impressionist” artists. This painting also reflects conversations he had with artist Albert Besnard, to whom the painting is dedicated, about how best to capture light in the moment.