Forest 1972

Curator: Lady Mary Rennell’s sketch simply titled “Forest” captures a sylvan scene, its precise date unknown but held within the Tate collection. Editor: It feels strangely claustrophobic for a forest. The brown ink, almost sepia-toned, hints at decay, a life cycle nearing its end. Curator: Sepia tones often evoke nostalgia, a romanticized past. Rennell, active in social reform, perhaps saw the forest as a symbol of disappearing wilderness threatened by industrialization. Editor: Or perhaps it reflects a personal melancholy. The symbols along the right edge – almost hieroglyphic – suggest a search for meaning beyond the purely representational. Curator: Those symbols are fascinating. They might represent personal iconography, recurring motifs imbued with private significance, connecting the external landscape to her internal one. I wonder what that little flower means? Editor: It gives a glimmer of hope. Rennell’s forest becomes less about environmental decline and more about the resilience of symbols and self in a changing world.