Chevy Sir 

Curator: I always feel a pang of…something…when I look at this painting. It’s like witnessing a private moment in the aftermath of the hunt. A hush. Editor: And what are we looking at here? Curator: We’re observing Edwin Landseer’s canvas. He entitled it "Chevy Sir." In it, an oil-rendered stag lies lifeless in a snowy landscape. Beside the fallen animal rests a beautiful, watchful dog. There is something both melancholic and stoic in the pose. It speaks to the price and purpose of life in such a stark natural environment. Editor: Landseer's such an interesting figure. Court painter to Victoria. He knew how to play with the romance of the Highlands while still grounding it in observable details – the snow here is just lumps of impasto, heavy material reality. But also…the labor that is celebrated isn't human labor here, so much as the trained instinct of an animal companion. The artist here becomes as irrelevant to the circle of violence and death as are the mountains looming in the background. Curator: Precisely. There’s an undeniable element of empathy injected into the portrayal of both animals – victim and…accomplice, for lack of a better word. You know, there’s always been this question hanging over this and many other works by Landseer… did he mean for them to function as some veiled comment on human relationships or social hierarchies? Does the dog mirror our servile role? Is the deer just us? Editor: Maybe. I just know someone spent a considerable amount of time stretching that canvas, grinding pigment, boiling oil…hunting wasn’t cheap. Or pretty, but labor – making things from other things, be it with a gun or brush, is central to understanding us. So if you read into Landseer’s art practices maybe this artifice is as close to a depiction of “realness” as any artist gets. I like Landseer. Curator: It does lay bare the bones, doesn't it? A stark reminder, brutally gentle, of the interconnectedness of all things, born from earth, returned to earth. Food. Beauty. Craft. It leaves a haunting echo that lingers… Editor: Haunting indeed, and yet… utterly resolved, you know? Everything in its proper place, fulfilling its material destiny.