Lake Lucerne, Switzerland 1858

Curator: Here we have Albert Bierstadt's "Lake Lucerne, Switzerland" from 1858. He’s known for these sweeping landscapes, imbued with light and drama. What grabs you about this piece? Editor: The way my eye is led... There’s a distinct foreground, this little dirt path with wildflowers – probably painted *en plein air*, no? – before everything expands into this rather imposing vista, a vast sense of space. It definitely screams ‘nature' as a spectacle, almost industriously. Curator: Good point! Bierstadt did embrace that awe-inspiring view of nature, that sublimity, really leaning into the Romantic aesthetic and the Hudson River School movement that emphasized grand, almost theatrical compositions. But tell me more about this sense of the industrious? Editor: Well, look at the labor it represents! Consider all of the painting materials – canvas, pigments, the time dedicated. This wasn't just capturing nature; it was about transforming the natural world into a consumable, beautiful object... especially during an era of mass production and rapid industrial growth. Landscape becomes both commodity and escape. Even this pathway here suggests not just observation, but resource extraction. Curator: Hmm, resource extraction… I was caught more by the hazy light he uses, giving the scene an almost ethereal quality. The soft gradations in color give this vista such a soft almost melancholic aura. Does it move you? Editor: "Melancholic" perhaps sells it short—Bierstadt, while capturing some ‘realism’ in rendering, was essentially mass producing sublime moments with paint for a Victorian consumer. I get something else… perhaps a yearning for something irrecoverable? Look at the means. How readily did those materials, mined who-knows-where, come into his possession. Where are the hands behind that transformation? The labor becomes invisible to achieve… this. Curator: Interesting… that tension between beauty and… what did you say… the invisible labor inherent in this kind of painting. I never really thought about how material-dependent this genre can be. I think I see this painting differently now. Editor: It all depends on perspective, doesn’t it? Maybe Bierstadt had similar conflicting emotions toward his landscape! But, without accounting for materiality, this lake is reduced to a simple aesthetic achievement. I can almost see the carbon footprint just radiating from those lovely clouds!