Courtyard, Casa del Chapiz

Over a period of more than thirty years, the American expatriate painter John Singer Sargent made seven trips to Spain, capturing its buildings and gardens, its flora and fauna, its working people and agrarian landscapes. On his first trip in 1879, he painted a turkey in the courtyard of the Casa del Chapiz in Granada and on his final trip in 1912, he returned to the same courtyard to paint a quiet scene with two donkeys, burdened by the weight of their panniers. In a composition primarily composed of whites, beiges, yellows, and browns, Sargent masterfully captures a handful of details in blue, moving the viewer’s eye across the composition.