Sargent and the sea

Artist John Singer Sargent, best known for his portraiture, also had a major passion for the sea. Next week, 85 years after his death, the Royal Academy will launch an exhibition of 80 maritime-themed paintings, drawings and watercolours produced early on in his career.

During Sargent’s extensive travels between 1974 and 1880, he captured the Normandy and Brittany coastlines, the Italian island of Capri, Morocco and various Mediterranean ports in watercolours, oil paintings and pencil.

The exhibition, titled Sargent and the Sea, will feature Setting Out to Fish, a major exhibition piece which was displayed at the Paris Salon in 1878. For this imposing painting of fisher folk in the Breton fishing port of Cancale, Sargent made a number of striking plein-air oil studies which will be presented alongside the painting.

Click on the image to preview the exhibition

Sargent and the Sea opens Saturday 10 July 2010 to Saturday 26 September 2010 - royalacademy.org.uk Admissions £10 full price; £9 registered disabled and 60 + years; £8 NUS / ISIC cardholders; £4 12–18 years and Income Support; £3 8–11 years; 7 and under free.