Uitgestrekt landschap 1605 - 1673

Editor: This is "Uitgestrekt landschap" by Lucas van Uden, created sometime between 1605 and 1673. It's a watercolor and pencil drawing on paper. There's a beautiful stillness to it; the subtle tones create such a serene, almost melancholic, mood. How do you interpret this work? Curator: The composition adheres to established pictorial conventions; consider the distinct foreground, middle ground and background, each differentiated by tone and texture, and united through aerial or atmospheric perspective. Do you perceive how Van Uden has modulated the pencil strokes and watercolor washes to create depth and recession? Editor: I see it. The foreground has darker, more defined lines compared to the faded background, which creates an illusion of depth. What strikes me, though, is the subdued palette. It’s almost monochromatic, save for very subtle washes of color. Curator: Precisely. The artist has reduced colour to a bare minimum in order to render contrasts in value all the more conspicuous. Note, too, the orthogonals created by the winding road and waterways. How do they influence our reading of the scene? Editor: They lead the eye deeper into the landscape. It's so carefully structured, even with its seemingly casual style. Curator: It reveals much about the artist's process. Through keen observation and technical skill, Van Uden was able to bring to the paper an experience of landscape based upon empirically verifiable principles. The scene is mediated through its making, as it were. Editor: It's fascinating to consider how artistic skill translates an observation of reality into an artistic experience that exists apart from it. I'll never see a landscape the same way again! Curator: Nor shall I. Thank you for drawing attention to its qualities of affect.