Pomegranates

Inspired by the lush vegetation on the island of Majorca, Pomegranates features the fruits in close-up, some bursting open in flashes of red seeds, amid dense green foliage. Sargent omitted all spatial reference points (sky or ground) and extended the tapestry of colors and textures to the edge of the sheet, thus heightening the decorative two-dimensionality of the composition. In certain passages his energetic, gestural brushwork eclipses readable form, suggesting that he was testing the boundaries of modernist abstraction.