Le Palais Du Doge, Venise 

Editor: Here we have "Le Palais Du Doge, Venise" by Félix Ziem, rendered with oil paint in an Impressionistic style. The shimmering light on the water is immediately striking, but what captures your attention when you view this artwork? Curator: My focus goes to the materiality itself. Look at the pigment handling! Ziem doesn't just depict Venice; he uses the oil paint to build Venice, the Doge’s Palace emerging from a flurry of brushstrokes. What does the way Ziem applied his oil paint say about Venice at the time of its creation? Editor: That's a really interesting question. I hadn't thought about the actual process. It does look like he’s capturing a fleeting moment, but maybe also something about the industrial processes transforming art and culture at the time. Curator: Exactly. Consider the rise of industrially produced paints in tubes. Ziem, like other Impressionists, could readily capture "en plein air" the light of Venice as a commodity. The very texture becomes about an emergent commodification of the experience of being there! Note that Ziem sold paintings commercially, repeating favored subjects and techniques. Editor: So, it’s not just the *subject* of Venice, but also the *means* by which Venice is rendered, distributed, and consumed, that’s so revealing. It seems less like Ziem is immortalizing Venice than participating in its commercialization? Curator: Precisely! The painting becomes not only a document but also evidence of the developing systems for cultural tourism. What appears as a scene is actually a cultural object deeply enmeshed in systems of consumption. Editor: That's shifted my perspective completely. It makes you wonder about the role of the artist in a changing market. Curator: It urges us to see painting as work. I am glad to consider production with you here!