The Storm 1881

Editor: Here we have Edward Mitchell Bannister’s “The Storm,” painted in 1881, using oil on… probably canvas, given the time. It’s immediately evocative, that dramatic sky... feels like a Turner but quieter. What do you see in this piece? Curator: You know, "quiet Turner" is brilliant; I love that! Bannister, a master of mood, offers us something profoundly internal here. The landscape, rendered with visible impasto, feels almost secondary to the emotional drama playing out in the sky. It feels like a struggle doesn't it? Or a moment of self-doubt, painted on a grand scale? Does that resonate with you? Editor: Definitely. It’s not just a storm outside, but an internal one. But, why this specific scene? A nondescript field under a tempestuous sky... it feels unfinished. Curator: Perhaps the point *is* the incompleteness. Bannister was deeply involved in the burgeoning art scene in Providence, Rhode Island. This feels like an echo of the Barbizon school of painting. Raw, immediate... he wasn’t trying to document a specific place but capture a transient emotional state. It makes me wonder what sort of tempest he may have been personally weathering at the time. It’s intensely private in a way, don't you think? Editor: It’s interesting how such a seemingly simple composition can hold so much. It does feel more personal now, not just another landscape. I'll never look at another landscape the same way. Curator: Precisely! Bannister invites us to project ourselves into the scene, to find echoes of our own storms reflected in the sky. It is, quite frankly, an invitation to see a bit of ourselves in nature, writ large.