En route pour la pêche (Setting Out to Fish)

The intimate drawing, En route pour la pêche (Setting Out to Fish) by John Singer Sargent, dates from 1878, offering a view into the artist’s early mastery of line and composition. Classified as a Drawing, this work was executed in pen and brown ink over an initial foundation of graphite on wove paper. Created within the culturally significant American period spanning 1876 to 1900, the piece showcases Sargent’s talent for capturing spontaneous moments of everyday life, contrasting sharply with the grand portraits for which he would later become internationally famous.

The visible traces of the underlying graphite demonstrate the preparatory thought process, which Sargent quickly overlaid with expressive ink work. The use of brown ink lends warmth and depth to the sketch, while dynamic cross-hatching and varied line weight define the figures and their environment with efficiency. The subject matter, capturing figures preparing to set out to fish, reflects a broader late nineteenth-century artistic interest in genre scenes and the dignity of labor. Sargent’s approach here prioritizes the immediacy of the action, utilizing minimal graphic information to suggest movement, light, and the texture of clothing, cementing his reputation as a formidable draughtsman.

This work serves as a crucial document of Sargent’s development, embodying the fluidity and confident handling that would characterize his entire career. As a major contribution to American art of the late nineteenth century, the piece helps contextualize the shift towards modern aesthetics during the era. The drawing is held in the prestigious collection of the National Gallery of Art. Due to its age and status, the work is now in the public domain, making high-quality digital reproductions widely available for scholarly study. High-resolution prints of this seminal work continue to circulate, allowing appreciation of Sargent’s early genius outside of the museum environment.