Approaching Thunderstorm, Flocks Driven Home, Picardy, France 1889

Curator: What a wonderfully evocative scene. We are looking at Henry William Banks Davis's 1889 painting, "Approaching Thunderstorm, Flocks Driven Home, Picardy, France." He captured this rural scene en plein air using oil paints. The mood seems somber but it offers the sense of action. Editor: That title is certainly doing some heavy lifting! My first impression is a palpable sense of urgency, don't you think? Those dark, looming clouds certainly dictate the painting's atmosphere. Curator: Absolutely. The artist’s attention to the sky and the atmospheric perspective contribute a good deal to that, and they almost seem to signal an ominous divine power about to intervene. The sheep clustered together are very expressive here, too, they speak to themes of protection, community, and vulnerability. Editor: True. Those sheep are such obvious symbols of pastoral life but the landscape as a backdrop actually disrupts that symbolism here, shifting our focus from idyllic pastures to vulnerability in a rapidly changing environment. Are we perhaps seeing a broader commentary on social vulnerability? After all, landscape painting has historically served as a silent backdrop to very pressing issues concerning gender, identity, and labor, among many. Curator: It’s very plausible. Davis often imbues his paintings of animals with strong emotional qualities—which aligns with certain philosophical trends of the Victorian era where the line between human and animal was getting questioned—he may indeed be nudging viewers toward greater empathy across the species barrier and by doing so suggesting at a very Victorian sensibility about what makes community. Editor: Thinking about it through that lens opens up a really nuanced understanding of this painting! We can think of it less as a simple snapshot of rural life and more as a meditation on vulnerability. What resonates is not simply an aesthetic admiration for the scene but a heightened sensitivity for both the material conditions as well as emotional weight of change for rural community. Curator: Yes, indeed. This canvas captures the transitional mood and symbolic potential present at that moment. Editor: It gives one quite a lot to contemplate beyond the visual aesthetics, indeed.