Seeing paintings in person vs. studying them on a screen

Last week I stood two inches from a Sorolla at the museum and realized the shadow on a white cloth was basically three fat strokes of lavender and grey green. On my phone the same painting looks like a smooth gradient. Completely different information.

I keep going back and forth on where I actually learn more. In person, I can see the tooth of the canvas through thin paint, how a loaded brush dragged across a dry passage, how much texture is doing the work that I always assumed was color. That changes everything about how I think about my own surfaces out in the field. But online I can sit with a painting for twenty minutes, zoom in, compare it side by side with my own studies. I have found color relationships on screen that I missed standing in front of the real thing, maybe because I was too distracted by the surface.

For plein air specifically, seeing how fast someone laid paint down in person has saved me more time than any tutorial. You can feel the speed in the brushwork. A reproduction flattens all of that.

So which one moves the needle more for you, museum visits or screen study? Curious whether it depends on what you are trying to learn.