Sketches of Legs and Feet

John Singer Sargent's Sketches of Legs and Feet (1917/21) is a charcoal drawing with stumping and graphite on cream laid paper. This sheet of studies focuses on a specific part of the human anatomy, the legs and feet, which Sargent was working out for his mural compositions. The study of individual body parts was a fundamental exercise in academic training, and even mature artists continued to make such studies when preparing complex figure compositions. Sargent's studies of legs and feet are rendered with the same mastery he brought to full figure drawings, each limb carefully observed and modeled. The charcoal technique is precise and controlled, the lines defining the forms with anatomical accuracy. The stumping creates soft transitions of tone. The cream laid paper provides a warm ground. These sketches belong to the period when Sargent was working on the murals for the Boston Public Library and the Museum of Fine Arts, and the specific studies likely relate to figures in those monumental compositions.

Sargent's anatomical studies demonstrate the academic discipline that underlay his art, showing the careful preparation that went into his most ambitious works.

This sheet of studies of legs and feet reveals the meticulous preparation behind Sargent's mural projects, the careful observation of anatomy showing the seriousness with which he approached the human figure.