Landscape with Boat, 1st plate (Le paysage au bateau) 

Curator: We’re now in front of Alphonse Legros' print, "Landscape with Boat, 1st plate". Legros worked with etching to produce this artwork, though no exact creation date is specified. Editor: My first impression is of a still, hushed world, despite the activity in the boat. There’s a lovely quietness to it; a sort of…pre-dawn contemplation. Curator: Indeed. Note how Legros employed very fine lines to create tonal variations. The closely packed lines build dense shadows, notably in the foliage and water, which give a tactile and rather dramatic depth. Editor: The scratchy lines remind me of thoughts being scrawled onto paper. It isn't photorealistic and maybe wasn’t trying to be. Look at how those small strokes add textures! Like the grass; he captures it just with thin groupings of lines, but it creates a landscape so clear it makes me think back to ones I know and remember. Curator: Precisely. It seems the artist prioritized line as an element. Observe the spatial composition, how it directs the eye. We’re led from the foreground boat towards the slightly elevated horizon. A classic compositional strategy used to structure and order pictorial space. Editor: Compositionally, yes. But those tiny houses barely hinted at on the horizon suggest something deeper than visual composition. It evokes a sense of a hidden, remote community, somehow untouched by the modern world. They even look slightly… haunted, don't they? Curator: The contrast between the detailed foreground and softer background certainly contributes to the dreamlike quality of this print. He has framed and layered very thoughtfully; his choice of textures, use of chiaroscuro, is evidence of skill, too. Editor: Maybe Legros wants us to ponder our place in that bigger picture; in society. After all, what is beyond those small settlements anyway? Curator: Thank you. Indeed a rewarding experience from careful consideration of Legros’ work. Editor: Certainly. A little quiet escape in a boat and into nature itself.