Bundles of pale glass rods glowing in a dark workshop

Women and a boy sit around a dim workshop sorting long rods of glass; the rods lie in loose bundles on the floor and across their laps, striking through the gloom as pale blue-white and mint strokes. The woman at the right, in a grey blouse and a rose skirt with a cream apron, leans over an armful of them; another in dark red works at the centre; more figures fade into the brown shadow behind. A small barred window catches the light at the upper left. Signed at the lower left.

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.