Gezicht op Genua c. 1890

Curator: We’re looking at a captivating landscape print today. It’s called "Gezicht op Genua," dating back to about 1890 and attributed to Alfredo Noack. Editor: My first thought? Nostalgia. There's something intrinsically melancholy about this sepia-toned view of Genoa. It’s faded and warm at the same time. Like an old memory you treasure but can't quite grasp. Curator: I see what you mean, yes. The landscape genre offers itself so naturally to that sentiment! Zooming in closer, one can see that this particular piece is a photograph pasted onto what appears to be aged or even homemade paper. There is the distinct impression of layers here: the substrate of the larger page and the applied photograph—all held within the album’s frame. Editor: I find my eye gravitates to the printed typeface alongside the photographic plate. Those small fonts, thick yet faded, are so charmingly outmoded—with the inconsistent, hand-drawn letterforms creating an anachronistic and strangely warm contrast to the high detail in the photo itself. Do you know, I would hazard that the combination of media underscores its themes: landscape, industry and travel! It feels both of a particular era, yet also reaching out from that time. Curator: Precisely! Noack was really clever, playing with how the new medium of photography could mimic the aesthetics of painting. So much of 19th-century photography looked to legitimate itself as 'art' in that way. Editor: Thinking about Noack trying to capture Genoa around 1890, with the old and the new world meeting at every corner. I can just imagine that. Curator: So true, it really comes through when seeing it like this—so immediate, yet mediated. Thanks for pointing out those dimensions, they really enriched how I see this work. Editor: My pleasure entirely. This piece certainly resonates beyond its composition or its media, stirring that wistful feeling for times that linger just out of reach.