Gondola Moorings on the Grand Canal

John Singer Sargent

National Gallery of Art

This painting shows a view along a blue canal with buildings lining the waterway. To the left of center is the curved end of a boat or gondola, suggesting that we are sitting in the boat. Beyond that, another boat is visible floating in the water. There are tall brown and blue poles to the left, spaced out along the canal. On the right, more poles stand in the water in front of steps leading up to a pale-yellow building with an arched doorway and a balcony hanging above. More buildings continue in a diagonal line, from the bottom right side to the center of the painting, where they turn into a horizontal line with a white bridge crossing the canal. The buildings are in shades of tan, light yellow, cream, pale blue, and light coral, many of them featuring balconies. The sky above the buildings is a clear, light blue, and the water of the canal reflects that. The brushstrokes in the painting are loose and fluid, and the colors overlap and blend.