Two figures meeting in a narrow Venetian alley of wet grey stone

A high-walled alley runs away from the viewer to a bright opening at the end. A young woman stands at the right in a black fringed shawl drawn over her head, a coral-pink skirt showing below it, one hand at her waist; a man in a long dark cloak and a soft hat leans towards her with his back half turned to us. The walls are scraped grey and dull rose, the pavement a broad sweep of pale stone. Signed and inscribed Venice at the lower right.

John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) was the leading portrait painter of his generation, born in Florence to American parents and trained in Paris under Carolus-Duran. The scandal of Madame X drove him to London in 1884, where he painted the aristocracy and the great merchant families for two decades before abandoning commissioned portraiture in 1907 for watercolour, landscape and mural work. He travelled constantly — Venice, the Alps, Spain, the Middle East, Florida — painting in oil and watercolour with a bravura touch that was widely imitated and never matched. His work is held by the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Tate and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Printed as a museum-grade giclée on Hahnemühle fine art paper using 12-ink archival pigment printing. Available handframed in FSC-certified wood with optional float glass, or unframed. Ships worldwide with free delivery to 30+ countries.