Street Scene, Rue Adam-Billaud, Nevers, France 19th-20th century

Curator: This is Denman Waldo Ross’s “Street Scene, Rue Adam-Billaud, Nevers, France,” from the collection of the Harvard Art Museums. It's rendered in pencil on paper. Editor: My first thought is how ephemeral it feels. The light, almost ghostly quality, gives it a dreamlike sensibility. Curator: I see that. Ross likely sketched this en plein air, capturing the social landscape of everyday life in Nevers. What I find compelling is how he uses the stark medium of pencil to highlight the town's architecture and its relationship to the people inhabiting it. Editor: The buildings do seem to almost lean into the street, as if in conversation with the passersby. What stories do these walls hold, what labor built them? And who benefits from them now? Curator: Precisely. The very stones are material witnesses to socio-economic narratives of that historical moment. We might consider the relationship between public space and private lives in Nevers at the time. Editor: I agree. It makes you wonder what Ross sought to reveal, or perhaps conceal, in this particular view of French life. Curator: It’s a quiet piece, but it stirs up a lot of questions when you begin to unpack the context and the craft. Editor: A simple, unpretentious piece that nonetheless makes me eager to investigate Nevers' history.