Entombment c. 19th century

Curator: Alphonse Leroy’s "Entombment," housed at the Harvard Art Museums, presents a scene heavy with sorrow. It’s rendered in a delicate, almost ghostly sepia wash. Editor: The textures created by the wash make me think of the cloth used for burial shrouds, the coarse linen against skin. It feels very tactile, despite being two-dimensional. Curator: Absolutely. Leroy uses the sepia to build layers of grief, literally shading and highlighting the emotional weight. Look at how the figures cluster around the body, each lost in their mourning. Editor: And the process itself, the labor involved in creating this image, reflects the labor of mourning, the slow, deliberate ritual of preparing a body for its final rest. It's an act of care made visible through artistic skill. Curator: I find it so moving how the artist captures that shared human experience of loss. It speaks to a universal vulnerability, doesn't it? Editor: Definitely. By focusing on the tangible aspects, like the medium and the implied textures, it makes the emotional impact even more profound. Curator: It makes you think, doesn’t it?