The Day After 1837

Curator: This is Auguste Raffet’s "The Day After," currently held at the Harvard Art Museums. What strikes you about it? Editor: The sheer desolation. A field littered with bodies, a lone, windswept tree... it speaks volumes about loss. Curator: Raffet's work often captured the plight of soldiers, and this piece serves as a powerful indictment of war. Consider the composition; the bodies almost spill out of the frame, confronting the viewer. Editor: It's not just about the physical toll. The visible poverty, the makeshift cart...it's a social commentary on the vulnerability of those forced into conflict. It speaks to power imbalances then and now. Curator: Absolutely, we can consider this within a broader context of how conflict disproportionately affects marginalized communities, both in Raffet's time and today. Editor: It certainly makes you think about who benefits, and who pays the ultimate price.