The Fountain, Villa Torlonia

John Singer Sargent painted this work in Frascati, Italy, during the summer of 1907. He was staying there with his friends Wilfrid and Jane de Glehn, who were also artists. Born in Florence to American parents, Sargent had become famous for his formal portraits of wealthy people. Around this time, he began accepting fewer portrait orders and spent more time traveling and painting outdoors. The Art Institute of Chicago says that rain interrupted his work on this painting several times. The finished canvas belongs to the freer and more personal art Sargent made away from his portrait studio.