Landscape 1755 - 1819

Curator: I'm drawn to this Landscape by François Jean Sablet. Executed between 1755 and 1819, this drawing uses etching and pencil on paper. The scene depicts a shepherd and his flock amidst classic architectural ruins. Editor: The cross-hatching is intense! I am interested in all the labor needed to create this detailed surface on paper. Curator: Exactly! Sablet layers these lines to build form and suggest the textures of stone, wool, and leaves. Notice how the fine etching gives a hazy atmospheric effect. It really pulls you into the serenity of the countryside. The level of labor involved for such small-scale art! Editor: Definitely, thinking about those repetitive marks emphasizes the physical process. How much time did it take to create this one plate? Curator: It’s easy to imagine Sablet, a lone figure himself, etching this plate in a room full of light, capturing not just the look, but also the atmosphere of that scene. The printmaking, then, can be replicated with the artist nowhere in sight! It changes artmaking so completely, giving access to the wealthy bourgeoisie class... It speaks to changing tastes and markets of the time! Editor: Ah, the Industrial Revolution sneaks in even here! With the emphasis on reproducible labor rather than unique handcrafted art. Also, those are sheep rather than cattle here in the bottom left, I suspect. Curator: Of course, sheep. It seems that my Romantic imagination has replaced those fluffy sheep with mighty oxen, but I can now really feel Sablet trying to invoke the ancient Arcadia. This detailed little drawing makes one want to lie in that field with those placid animals, listening to music in an ideal world, though even with the emphasis on bucolic life, you rightly point us back to the real working methods behind art like this. Editor: And how those methods are tied to economic realities...well, this reminds us that no image appears by magic. Curator: Indeed, looking again now, I wonder whether Arcadia can truly escape reality.