Magnet #949 - Sargent's Oyster GatherersIt's raining like crazy outside in NYC today, and like a dummy, I'm wearing sandals. So when I saw this Sargent in my magnets photobucket cache, I knew I had to use it.
Saw this piece at the Corcoran's Sargent and the Sea exhibition earlier this year. I've never been a huge fan of Sargent, but I really dug this show because of his sketches/sketchbooks on display.
There's a whole background here at the JSS gallery about this painting, and how it's the women of Cancale doing the oyster gathering, while the men are away. You can see here all the generations heading out for the hunt (the gather?).
It does remind me of all the clamming we did when we were little - we'd head out to the marshes, in either North or South Carolina, and go digging for clams. What sticks most in my head (pun intended), though, is the loud sucking sound that came from pulling our feet out of each hole we'd made in the sludgey mud.
Lotta effort, given that we kids weren't big clam fans. For a kid, that's pretty much playing like a pig in slop, fun as hell, and of course, dirty as hell, too.
Wonder if if I'd dig it now.
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