John Singer Sargent travelled to the Middle East and did a watercolor series on the Bedouins. Bedouin means desert dweller in Arabic. Bedouins are the semi-nomadic peoples who live primarily in the Middle East and North Africa in arid steppe regions. They live upon the sand.

Sargent accomplished a great deal in this small 18” x 12” painting. He felt it was the keynote of his Bedouin works. It reveals again his technical facility as he paints more precise portrait-like faces surrounded by an inexact, abstracted, and lush flurry of thick fabric lifted to our eyes in a saturated blue. This watercolor painting is both opaque and translucent. It is a piece of forceful Impressionism that might make all of us wish we had been with him to also honor these beautiful, confident subjects.

This work of masterful appreciation seems a statement of all that can be good and transformational about travel. Even if we only travel by viewing art in our living rooms or in museums, we can learn what looking deeply into the eyes of another can mean. John Singer Sargent seemed to do that as he focused precisely on these faces and then quickly added their surroundings.

Did you notice the dagger? Sargent significantly abstracted the dagger and added a red around it. Maybe in this way he was sharing an aspect of the herder lifestyle he was immortalizing. Can you imagine the trust represented here? Somehow he asked and they consented within a steady, curious gaze.

Once again we can realize in this work that looking closely can be a practice of our faith. Let’s remember to make eye contact with others often and see where it leads. We can hope it is the first step of respect and affirmation that might open hearts and minds across any divide.

In gratitude, faith and hope,

Sandy Prouty
Minister of Children and Families
Montview Church