An Alpine Landscape with a Couple Seated by Trees Overlooking a Valley 1760 - 1763

Benjamin West made this landscape drawing with graphite on paper, sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century. The artist has used simple materials and tools: graphite, refined into pencils, and paper, manufactured in larger and larger sheets as industrialization advanced. West was interested in the effects he could achieve with these relatively new materials. Notice the subtle gradations of tone, achieved by varying the pressure of the pencil on the paper. The texture of the paper itself is also important, giving a slightly rough quality to the drawing. It is a relatively quick way of working, ideally suited to capturing a fleeting impression of a scene. The drawing isn’t a finished painting, but it is a record of West’s encounter with this impressive vista. In its very immediacy, it captures something of the sublime experience of confronting the natural world. In doing so, it shows how the most modest materials can be elevated through art.