Workmen at Carrara

John Singer Sargent's Workmen at Carrara (1911) is a watercolor with touches of opaque watercolor and scraping over graphite on ivory wove paper. This watercolor shows workmen in the marble quarries of Carrara, Italy, the famous source of the white marble used by sculptors from Michelangelo to the present day. Sargent visited Carrara in 1911 and was fascinated by the scale of the quarrying operation and the physical labor of the workmen. The watercolor captures the dramatic landscape of the quarries, with the white marble cliffs towering above the figures of the workmen. The touches of opaque watercolor add weight and solidity to certain passages, while the scraping creates highlights that suggest the sparkle of the marble. This watercolor is notable for its subject matter: Sargent, the painter of the elegant elite, here turns his attention to the world of manual labor, capturing the dignity and scale of the quarrymen's work with the same technical brilliance he brought to his portraits of the wealthy.

Sargent's Carrara watercolors demonstrate the range of his social observation, showing the great portraitist of the elite engaging with the world of manual labor.

This watercolor of workmen at the Carrara marble quarries captures the scale of the quarrying operation and the dignity of the workmen's labor, Sargent's brilliant technique bringing an unusual subject to life.