Thistles

1883–89

John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925)

Beginning in 1885, John Singer Sargent increasingly spent time painting outside, exploring the techniques and subjects of Impressionism, inspired by a growing friendship with Claude Monet. Executing this work in rural England (or possibly Nice in southern France), Sargent experimented with distinctly broken brushwork and a high-keyed palette. Thistles captures the tangled movement of the windblown plants in light and shadow. This landscape composition is remarkably abstract: the dynamic patterning of the thistles asserts the flatness of the picture plane more so than any sense of depth. Sargent continued painting en plein air throughout his life, a practice that provided needed respite from his busy schedule as an acclaimed portraitist.

Status: On View, Gallery 176
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: John Singer Sargent
Title: Thistles
Place: England (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: c. 1883–1889
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 55.9 × 71.8 cm (22 × 28 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Brooks McCormick
Reference Number: 1996.446
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/145807/manifest.json

Impressionism and Post–Impressionism in the Art Institute of Chicago, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2000), 84.
Judith A. Barter et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 322–325, no. 170.
Judith A. Barter et al., The Age of American Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2011), no. 35.

Art Institute of Chicago, John Singer Sargent and Chicago’s Gilded Age, July 1–Sept. 30, 2018, cat. 14, fig. 133.

Artist’s sale, Christie’s, London, 24 and 27 July 1925, lot 198, sold to David Croal Thomson of Barbizon House, London; Charles Deering, Chicago; by descent to his daughter, Marion Deering (Mrs. Chauncey McCormick), 1927; by descent to her son Brooks McCormick, 1965; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1996.

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