From Christie's Lot Notes   

In Sargent's A Palace and Gardens, Spain, the artist chooses to paint a Baroque facade seen from a distance across a formal garden. The work is freely sketched, as if the artist sought to capture a fleeting image of sunlight. On the left, he paints leaves with staccato strokes of green and a hedge with a broader brush. In the further distance, he paints entablatures and columns with the broken brushwork characteristic of his best compositions.  
  

Provenance    
Estate of the artist.  
Christie's, London, England, Pictures and Watercolor Drawings by J.S. Sargent, 24 July 1925, lot 37.  
Thos. Agnew and Sons, Ltd., London, acquired from the above.  
Major G.W. Allen, purchased from the above, 1946.  
By descent to the son of the above.  
Christie's, London, England, 6 March 1992, lot 25.  
Acquired by the present owner from the above.  

Offered Christie's New York; 11/29/2001; Lot: 31; sale number 9788; not sold. Estimated $100,000 to $150,000 and was "passed" at $85,000