Steinige Meeresküste, vorne links Hügel 

Editor: This is "Steinige Meeresküste, vorne links Hügel" by Charles-François Daubigny, a pencil and etching drawing held here at the Städel Museum. I find the texture created by the pencil on the pebble beach to be really evocative. How do you interpret the artist's use of materials here? Curator: Well, let's think about the process itself. Daubigny’s choice to use pencil and etching – both reproducible mediums – suggests accessibility. What was Daubigny trying to make available to a wider public, given the laborious techniques typically used for image making? Editor: I guess that he wanted to share landscapes with more people, at a lower cost. Curator: Precisely! The "realism" ascribed to it in some readings is directly tied to that impulse: a desire to accurately represent, through easily disseminated means, a specific location. Think of the industrial revolution and how that's changing where and how people lived. Could this be linked to an interest in observing nature that’s maybe slipping away from more urbanized life? Editor: So the subject matter, the beach and coastline, gains significance not just as a scene but also as a commentary on the changing world? Curator: Exactly. Consider the materials. Pencils and etching plates are produced through industrial processes and, for the artistic community, this meant relying on an increasingly industrialised world to continue practicing art. How did these technologies shape both the consumption and production of Daubigny's work? Editor: That's interesting... So by considering his materials, we can better understand Daubigny's role in society and what the landscape represented for him at the time. It’s about access, industry, and representing something before it's gone. Thank you. Curator: Indeed. It prompts us to look closer at how seemingly simple artistic choices reveal complex relationships between the artist, their materials, and their society.