View of the Park at Versailles: Stairway and Two Poplars n.d.

Curator: This is Antoine Pierre Mongin’s "View of the Park at Versailles: Stairway and Two Poplars." Though undated, it resides now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Editor: It’s…quiet. Immediately, I'm drawn to the subdued graphite and chalk, the artist’s hand so visible in the hatching and those subtle washes. Curator: The medium speaks volumes, doesn’t it? Look at the grid beneath the sketch, a tool, not hidden, revealing the underlying structure. It's very clearly a preparatory drawing, revealing Mongin’s process and labor. We see art and its construction, literally layered. Editor: Construction indeed. The stairs receding into the park invite the eye, but the trees, those almost mournful poplars, they dominate the emotional landscape. There’s a melancholy here, despite the ordered geometry. Almost like Versailles is slowly succumbing to nature's soft, inevitable disorder. Curator: Interesting how you read that tension. Consider that the rigid layout and planned perspective reflected absolute power. But Mongin worked "en plein air," outdoors and on site, using transient light and atmospheric conditions to influence his work. That injects a certain kind of instability, almost a democratic breath. It’s fascinating to witness these colliding forces. Editor: You know, the more I look, the more those little figures become vital, too. Are they workers? Lovers? Ghostly visitations? It’s almost like he wants the evidence of ordinary lived reality to find purchase in those vast gardens, maybe poking at notions of high and low. Curator: That aligns with my sense of how Mongin challenges artistic hierarchies through materiality. The drawing makes visible the labour usually hidden in an artwork destined for print, complicating those ideas for audiences. Editor: That subtle interplay elevates the piece for me. The whispers of artistic freedom echo even in this sketch of formal gardens. I sense a rebellion blooming. Curator: I completely agree; viewing this with a focus on materiality, production, and the intersection with natural settings, provides fresh insight. Editor: For me it started in mood, and ended somewhere completely unexpected. Thank you, Mongin, for layering secrets and subtle resistance in a landscape.