Thou Shalt Not Steal - John Singer Sargent
Archival giclée
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Description
A fluid watercolour by John Singer Sargent depicting two figures gathering fruit, captured with rapid brushwork and light-filled tones.
John Singer Sargent produced this watercolour, titled Thou Shalt Not Steal, in 1912. The work depicts two figures, likely children or young adults, reaching into the dense foliage of a fruit tree. The composition focuses on the interaction between the figures and the natural environment, capturing a fleeting moment of rural activity. Sargent employs a fluid, spontaneous technique characteristic of his later watercolour practice, where he prioritised the play of light and shadow over rigid anatomical precision.
The figures are dressed in light-coloured clothing, including pith helmets, which suggests a warm climate and a colonial or travel-related context. The foliage is rendered with rapid, gestural brushstrokes, creating a sense of movement and dappled sunlight filtering through the leaves. The palette consists of earthy greens, ochres, and touches of red in the skirt of the foreground figure, which provide a visual anchor against the lighter tones of the clothing and the sky.
Sargent was a prolific watercolourist, particularly during his travels across Europe and the Middle East. His ability to capture the essence of a scene with minimal detail is evident here. The title adds a narrative layer to the image, implying a playful or illicit act of fruit picking. The work demonstrates his mastery of the medium, specifically his control over wet-on-wet techniques to suggest the density of the tree canopy. By leaving areas of the paper white or lightly tinted, he maintains a sense of luminosity throughout the composition. This piece reflects his interest in everyday subjects observed during his extensive travels, moving away from the formal portraiture that defined his earlier career.
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Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
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Specific Features
Every Solis piece is made to order with archival, gallery-quality materials built to last.
- Museum-grade giclée printing for rich, fade-resistant colour
- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
- Multiple sizes and framing options available
- Frames in black, natural wood, dark wood or white
- Framed prints arrive ready to hang
Care & Cleaning
To keep your artwork looking its best:
- Dust gently with a soft, dry cloth
- Avoid prolonged direct sunlight
- Never use liquid cleaners on the print or canvas surface
- Keep in a dry, room-temperature space
- Handle prints with clean, dry hands
Materials & Sizing
Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
Thou Shalt Not Steal - John Singer Sargent
Artist Biography
John Singer Sargent
He was born in Florence to American expatriate parents and grew up moving between European cities. He never lived in America until he was middle-aged. He studied under Carolus-Duran in Paris, who taught him to paint directly from observation without underdrawing: load the brush, find the right tone, put it down in one stroke. The method required extraordinary hand-eye coordination and supreme confidence. Sargent had both.
Madame X, painted in 1884, nearly ended his career. The portrait of Virginie Amelie Avegno Gautreau, an American socialite in Parisian society, showed her in a black dress with one shoulder strap hanging off. The Salon audience was scandalised. Sargent repainted the strap in its proper position but the damage was done. He left Paris for London and rebuilt.
In London he became the portraitist of choice for the Anglo-American upper class. The technique is astonishing: he painted quickly, in long single-session sittings, and the brushwork has a fluency that makes other portraitists look laborious. The Wyndham Sisters, Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, and the portrait of Theodore Roosevelt show what he could do at full stretch.
He eventually did stop. After 1907 he largely abandoned portraits for watercolours and the murals at the Boston Public Library and the Museum of Fine Arts. The watercolours, painted on travels through Italy, Spain, and the Middle East, are looser and freer than the portraits and possibly better. He died in London in 1925, at sixty-nine.
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