An Out-of-Doors Study. Inspired in part by the Impressionist work of his friend Claude Monet, this portrait depicts another French artist friend, Paul Helleu, and his young wife Alice, settled in the grass at Fladbury, in England's Cotswolds. Paul Helleu Sketching with his Wife (http://poulwebb.blogspot.nl/2014/03/john-singer-sargent-part-7.html) An Out‑of‑Doors Study, Sargent's portrait of his dear friend, the French painter Paul Helleu, and his wife, Alice, is a painting about the act of painting. Sargent carefully records the precise and delicate pose of Helleu's hand as he applies paint to his canvas—making it the focal point of the composition. We witness Helleu's intense concentration on the creation of his art as if it were a performance. (https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2015/sargent-portraits-of-artists-and-friends/blog/posts/sargent-portrayal-of-hands)