The Ferry 1773

Curator: So, here we have Jean-Baptiste Le Prince's "The Ferry," a delicate print housed here at the Harvard Art Museums. What's your take on it? Editor: It's like a daydream, isn't it? Faded sepia tones, all implying a story rather than shouting it. Very wistful. Curator: Notice the emphasis on labor, though. The figures loading the ferry, the visible traces of the printing process itself. It grounds the romanticism. Editor: Perhaps, but even the labor feels…soft. The loose lines, the suggestion of activity more than its gritty reality. I feel carried away. Curator: It speaks to the commodification of idyllic scenes, doesn't it? Turning labor into a picturesque consumable. Editor: I see your point. Still, I can't shake this sense of a fleeting, beautiful moment. Curator: A fleeting moment indeed, skillfully crafted and circulated. Editor: Exactly, that's the beauty! And the wistfulness remains, I suppose.