Hills of Galilee by John Singer Sargent (1856–1925). c. 1905–1906. Watercolor, 12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm). Collection: Brooklyn Museum, accession no. 09.823. Purchased by Special Subscription, 09.823. (Photo credit: Brooklyn Museum). Downloaded under the terms of the Creative Commons License: CC BY-NC-SA (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Deed). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Sargent visited the Middle East in 1905, in preparation for his murals for the high ceiling vault of the Boston Public Library, which would continue a biblical theme. He was disappointed at first, and not finding suitable subjects while staying in Tiberias, decided to seek inspiration in the desert, at first among nomads:
A series of watercolors were done, in every light, while perky goats poked their slim muzzles at him and threatened to eat his paints. And he turned his attention to the desert itself, finding the Dead Sea a brilliant blue in the glowing sands, while the Hills of Galilee, broken, rocky, and unable to support life, looked heat seared and scarred. Fields laid out for cultivation in the sands formed patterns trailing off into vastness. The sky had to be painted too, the sea of the air and the sea of the sand flowing together in liquid washes and opaque touches.... The heat, the intensity of the sky burning down as he worked... his pictures give it all. [Mount 302-3]
This watercolour has been suggested as "one likely source for the landscape of Sermon on the Mount, as it appears in the extant sketches" of the celebrated mural (see Promey 330, n.84). — Jacqueline Banerjee
Bibliography
Mount, Charles Merrill. John Singer Sargent: A Biography. New York, Norton, 1955.
Promey, Sally M. Painting religion in public: John Singer Sargent's Triumph of Religion at the Boston Public Library. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999.
Created 18 February 2026