Today I want to get into composition and focal areas. I want to show you how the abstract value plan ties into the composition of the painting and the ways Sargent uses this plan to lead the eye to the focal areas and around the painting. 

The main focal area is at the top of the painting (A). The staircase and triangular shadow lead directly to it. It has high contrast of value, a hard edge, and lots of detail (small shapes) in the shadows, the stonework, and the leaves and branches, which keeps your eye coming back to that area. Compare that to a secondary focal area (B). While it has a lot of detail in the small shapes, it doesn't have high contrast of value or hard edges.

Being a strong vertical painting, Sargent has chosen to keep things more centered and linear. The focal areas don't move around the painting as much as you would find in most other compositions, but instead stay almost in line. Sargent can get away with that because the painting's dimensions are nearly double its height compared to its width. The linear path of focal areas also mirrors the shadow line where the cast shadow on the stairs and the shadowed wall on the right meet. And with the main focal area near the top of the painting, the linear treatment adds to the feeling of immense height to the staircase. 

Let's really break it down. I'll start with that big triangular shadow on the staircase.

Notice how this triangle points directly to the focal area at the top of the stairs. Such a direct line to the focal area is normally considered a no-no because it causes the viewer's eye to zoom right to that shape—we call this a fast line. But Sargent understands this and creates ways to slow the eye down. Those dark horizontal lines (C) in the steps near the bottom are like speed bumps that slow the eye movement. You pause there for a moment to see what's going on, staying there long enough but not too long because there isn't a lot of other things happening in that spot. The viewer's eye then drifts to the rectangle shadow shape on the left wall, but again, doesn't stay there long because there isn't a lot of information to hold their attention, either. So it continues up that big triangle. It pauses again in the middle where the foliage cast shadow connects with the shadow on the stairs (B). The edge becomes soft and broken into smaller shapes, which is different than the edge before and after it. This difference causes our brains to slow down again and take a closer look at it. If there's a lot going on, your eye will stay there for a while, looking at it. If there isn't much going on, it will slow down and pause, but then move on to find more interesting areas of the painting. Which it does, right near the top of the painting.

Suddenly there are multiple smaller shapes, including the 2 smaller triangles, all that foliage and branchwork, and the doorway to the left and the rectangular wall sections opposite to the right (C). All of this information creates detail in the focal area and allows the eye to stop and take it all in.

But there is more to creating a focal area than just having lots of detail. Sargent creates this focal area in several other ways. The strong contrast of value between the white of the stairs and the dark shadows of the foliage, the hard edgework, intense color, and as we discussed all that information and detail all tell you that Sargent wants you to look here more than any other area in the painting.

With the focal area being near the top of the painting, there is a problem of the eye continuing outside of the picture plane, especially with that strong triangle pointing there. But the lines of wood across the top, one light and one dark, keeps the eye in the painting from going out of the painting.

Lastly I want to mention how important that large angled shape that is cast onto the left wall is to the composition. This shape balances the visual weight of all that information at the top in the focal area. If you remove it, the painting quickly becomes unbalanced. You can see this by putting your hand over that shadow. Once you do that, your eye no longer wants to move down to that area. The other thing it does is to create two negative shaped triangles pointing to the secondary focal area of those dark lines on the stair to help define where your eye is supposed to look and create more interest in this area to contrast the interest at the top.

For the last post on Sargent's Staircase in Capri, I'll discuss how Sargent unifies this painting through shape and color.