By the 1930s this had secured a dazzling collection of paintings, notably of impressionists and post-impressionists, though today it also has excellent American galleries, as well as good Asian and Middle Eastern artefacts.

ECONOMIST: To natural assets add art, learning and fun

While the plein-air paintings of the Impressionists and post-Impressionists seem studied in comparison with the informality of these watercolors, we search the Sargents for evidence that their creator was aware of the developments in abstract art during the first decades of the 20th century.

WSJ: Fluid, Evanescent Images | John Singer Sargent Watercolors | Brooklyn Museum | By Tom L. Freudenheim