Storm 

Curator: I'd like to introduce you to "Storm", a drawing created with ink and watercolor by Alphonse Legros. Editor: Gloomy! My immediate thought is how heavy the atmosphere feels. Look at that sky, pressing down on everything. You can almost feel the humidity. Curator: Exactly. The composition guides our eye, doesn't it? From the shadowed trees on the left, drawing us inward, past the barely visible structure on the distant hill, towards that downpour. It evokes a sense of precarity, something ominous about to happen. The symbol of the "storm" always delivers anxiety. Editor: For me, it’s the limited palette that reinforces that feeling. It's all earth tones, browns and grays, clearly demonstrating the natural materials available. But how does Legros achieve this tonal depth just using ink and watercolor? Was it multiple layers? Or perhaps the paper itself? It feels like a lesson in frugality in the choice of media. Curator: Likely both, multiple washes of diluted ink can achieve that build-up of tone, a technique that would have been favored by those creating monochrome works during his era, connecting his work to older graphic traditions. Think of the allegorical significance of storms throughout art history. Is it a purely aesthetic exercise, or is Legros exploring our relationship with nature and its overwhelming power? The emotional effect of the artwork taps into something elemental within us. Editor: Elemental indeed! There’s definitely skill in conveying such strong emotions using fairly accessible and inexpensive materials. It begs the question, where was this made and who was Legros catering for with art materials like this? Not an aristocratic court for sure! The roughness seems integral. Curator: Well, this was an enlightening discussion. I think "Storm" succeeds in visually encapsulating the sublime unease and power that Romanticism was all about. Editor: Absolutely, and I'm more interested now in the conditions and materiality of this piece. Alphonse Legros did so much with relatively little.