The Blue Villa, Bello Squardo, Florence, Italy 19th-20th century

Curator: This is Denman Waldo Ross’s watercolor, “The Blue Villa, Bello Squardo, Florence, Italy,” held here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It feels so light, almost ephemeral. The strokes are loose, and the colors muted. Curator: Ross was interested in color theory and design. Consider the watercolor medium itself: its portability allowed artists to capture fleeting impressions of sites like this one in Italy. Editor: Absolutely. Watercolor's translucency beautifully conveys the atmospheric perspective, suggesting distance and a sense of place. Was Ross perhaps reacting against the industrialization of the time by depicting these serene landscapes? Curator: It’s definitely a counterpoint. Ross was part of the Arts and Crafts movement, which valued handcrafting and celebrated simpler ways of life. Editor: I find it refreshing to think about this work as an artist’s labor, as a record of a particular moment in time, in a particular place. Curator: Indeed, and perhaps through that experience, Ross invites us to contemplate our own relationship to place and history.