Unloading Plaster

Sargent altered large portions of this composition by scraping away previous paint applications, abrading the surface of the paper in the process. The largest alteration—the area of the entire rowboat and the nudes—was then repainted with thickly applied opaque watercolors bulked with zinc white. This repainting is so masterful that it is difficult to detect without the aid of a microscope, which reveals clumps of the abraded surface fibers in the paint. Sargent altered the triangular sail at right and repainted it with white lead, a pigment rarely used because of its tendency to darken (as seen in portions of the sail and in the figures to the left of the sail).