Landscape 19th-20th century

Curator: Here, in the Harvard Art Museums, we have a watercolor entitled "Landscape" by Denman Waldo Ross. It's a small work, just about 5 by 7 inches. Editor: It has a dreamlike quality, doesn't it? That hazy green, those solid little buildings perched on the hill... I feel like I'm peering into someone's memory. Curator: Ross, he sought to capture the essence of a place, not necessarily its exact replica. The houses, for instance, could symbolize shelter, community, while the dominant green might suggest growth and harmony with nature. Editor: Or perhaps the weight of history? Buildings as vessels of time, the green overtaking them as nature reclaims what was built. There's an almost melancholic beauty in that, this gentle dissolving of the man-made into the organic world. Curator: I see it as the artist finding balance, a gentle conversation between forms. Editor: Yes, a conversation, a quiet meditation on impermanence and the enduring power of the natural world.