Profile Head of a Young Man 19th-20th century

Editor: Here we have Denman Waldo Ross' "Profile Head of a Young Man," a small pencil sketch at the Harvard Art Museums. It feels like a study, almost a practice piece. What does the materiality of this sketch suggest to you? Curator: Consider the nature of pencil itself: graphite mined from the earth, processed, encased in wood—a readily available, mass-produced tool. This sketch, then, becomes less about singular artistic genius and more about the accessibility of artistic practice, the democratization of image-making through affordable materials. What implications might this have for art historical narratives? Editor: That's fascinating; I hadn't considered the social implications of something as simple as a pencil. Curator: By focusing on the means of production, we move beyond aesthetic appreciation and delve into the cultural and economic forces shaping artistic creation. Editor: This gives me a whole new way of looking at art!