As a city of islands, Venice was unique to Sargent in many ways, and he took advantage of one of these unique features while painting his second series. 
The gondolas have come to represent Venice and have been an integral part of transportation for the city since the eleventh century when pedestrian ways were not yet paved and only narrow canals had perfunctory bridges. These “oversized black canoes” (Davis 147) were not easy to row by a single gondolier, and despite remaining unchanged for centuries, the gondola experienced a make-over in order to handle the “mass-tourist traffic that invaded Venice after the 1880s” (Davis 145). Privately owned gondolas were used for the nobility as a means to show off wealth, whereas most of the people used the gondolas practically as a ferry to get across canals. As discussed by the Italy’s Institution for the Conservation of the Gondola, the gondola was necessary to see different perspectives of the city and its buildings: “Some corners and some architectural characteristics are visible, then, only from the “rii” [canals], so that it is necessary using the boat to be able to see them” (http://www.gondolavenezia.it/homeng.asp). It is no wonder then that Sargent would choose to paint from gondolas so as not to make simple copies of works painted before him. 
According to Donna Janis, regarding Sargent’s trips to Venice: “After the turn of the century Sargent visited Venice nearly every year for more than a decade…it was then that he began to explore the city in the Curtises’ gondola and paint the passing scene” (Adelson 187). With a borrowed gondola from his relatives, the Curtises, Sargent was able to capture unique perspectives of Venetian buildings, particularly the Plazzi (palaces) that lined the Grand Canal. He probably had his own gondolier, who is speculated to be the man in his 1905 watercolor, On the Zattere (Adelson 207). By using the gondola to travel around the city, Sargent was able to get close to buildings in order to depict their architectural details, and this is why many of his works’ perspectives are from the water looking up at the buildings. An example of this is Sargent’s Steps of a Palace (1903), where Sargent focuses on the architectural qualities of doorsteps from an oblique angle. However, in addition to looking at these structures, the gondola perspective could also allow Sargent to depict the waters of Venice as seen in the watercolor. Sargent portrays the texture of the water as well as the intriguing color created by a combination of light and the movement of the water due to the bustling boats. This is particularly apparent in his On the Canal (1903), which presents the blue-green water, the gondoliers working hard to push the gondolas along, and the characteristic architecture standing erect behind the motion in the foreground. It is an important juxtaposition of movement and stasis, which Sargent attributed to an architecturally unchanging Venice. 
As described by Janis, Sargent used the mobility of his gondola to his advantage for his pictures: “The city’s edifices loom over the water as the artist glides by…his fragmentary views evoking with cinematic intensity the sensation of continuous movement” (Adelson 187). Being driven by a gondolier, Sargent is able to capture the passing images quickly with watercolor, giving his pictures a sense of movement. Thus, this easily accessible mode of transportation became equally as important to Sargent’s other artistic tools, as he drifted around Venice to capture its superior architectural structures.
Sargent, John Singer. On the Zattere. 1905. Private Collection. Location Unknown.
Sargent, John Singer. Steps of a Palace. 1903. Owner Unknown. Location Unknown.
Sargent, John Singer. On the Canal. 1903. Musèe du Petit Palais, Paris, France.
