Palm Trees, Assouan 1896

Editor: Here we have Robert David Gauley’s watercolor painting, "Palm Trees, Assouan," housed here at Harvard. It’s so evocative, almost dreamlike with its hazy washes of color. What do you see in this piece that really resonates? Curator: For me, it's the mirage-like quality of the oasis. Gauley’s captured that feeling of heat shimmering off the desert, transforming reality into something ethereal. Do you see how the palm trees seem almost translucent? Editor: I do, now that you mention it! It’s like they're both there and not there, fading into the heat. Curator: Exactly. Perhaps it reflects not just the landscape, but also the fleeting nature of experience, that sense of grasping for something just beyond our reach. A whisper of paradise, wouldn’t you say? Editor: Definitely, that's a beautiful way to look at it. I'll remember that.