Three Small Landscapes; verso: Four Small Landscapes and Figure Sketch 1863

Editor: This is Sanford Robinson Gifford's "Three Small Landscapes; verso: Four Small Landscapes and Figure Sketch". These sketches seem so fleeting and raw. What's your perspective on these landscapes? Curator: I see Gifford, within the Hudson River School tradition, documenting the landscape but also engaging with the political dimensions of land. The sketches are not simply aesthetic exercises but also records of a changing American landscape, impacted by expansion and industrialization. Do you notice how these sketches can be seen as both celebrating and mourning the wilderness? Editor: That's a powerful reading. I hadn't considered the duality. How can we reconcile celebrating and mourning simultaneously? Curator: Think about it like this: Gifford is capturing a moment that is already disappearing. The act of sketching becomes a way of preserving what is being lost to development, speaking to the complex relationship between humans and nature. Editor: So, the sketches are a form of resistance. I see that tension now. Thank you! Curator: Indeed, and by understanding that tension, we can begin to see the agency within these landscapes.