In a Hayloft

The two figures nested in a half-lit hayloft are the Italian painters Ambrogio Raffele and Carlo Pollonera, whose camaraderie Sargent enjoyed during summer painting stints in Purtud, in 1904 and 1905. Sargent masterfully established their likenesses with the briefest means: layered passages of wash and selectively touched highlights that describe a confined raking light on their features. The figures are barely discernible within the broad washes of color—a mysterious effect enhanced by the scene’s overall greenish hue.