Treetop 8 - 1865

Editor: So, this drawing is titled "Treetop," created by Edmund Friedrich Kanoldt in 1865. It's a pencil drawing on paper, and honestly, it's the level of detail that strikes me first. What can you tell us about it? Curator: Well, let's think about the materiality of it. Graphite, which is the material of pencils, is of the earth, quite literally mined and then processed to make a tool for image-making. Kanoldt isn’t using rare or precious metals, pigments, or other materials, and he's focused on this commonplace tree. How might we understand the context of industrialization here, with mass-produced pencils becoming available? How might we contrast it with pre-industrial landscape drawings? Editor: That's interesting. It's almost like he's democratizing landscape art by using such accessible materials to depict this incredibly complex form of nature. I guess what I'm getting at is, with photography around at this time, why go through all the labour intensive activity to draw a treetop with so much botanical specificity? Curator: Exactly! This intense, almost scientific, focus becomes really important. It’s about labor – both the labor of the artist in depicting nature, and perhaps pointing to a labor that would produce cheap, accessible materials for artistic practice. And, think of the consumption this allows! It changes the relationship between the artist and the landscape they portray, making observation itself a form of production, of knowledge gathering that is intrinsically linked to a societal focus on resources, right? Editor: So the humble pencil and the depiction of the humble treetop reflects shifts in art production itself and the materials available to it. I hadn't thought about it like that! Curator: And don’t forget the potential market for affordable drawings, too. Kanoldt’s choices about materials connect to so many aspects of production and consumption!