Storm van den 26 September A 1853 Huize Endegeest bij Leijden 1853

Curator: Here we have Jacobus Ludovicus Cornet’s etching, "Storm van den 26 September A 1853 Huize Endegeest bij Leijden," created in 1853. Editor: What a stark landscape. The dense network of lines really evokes a sense of disruption, almost violent, focusing our attention on the fallen trees. Curator: Absolutely. Cornet masterfully utilizes the etching technique, focusing on the contrasting tones. Look at how the density of line work not only constructs form but also creates the atmospheric perspective within the landscape. We observe gradations from dark foreground to increasingly lighter marks implying distance, pulling our vision further into the wooded scene. Editor: The starkness is captivating, and thinking about the method involved helps deepen my engagement. We are looking at an etching made using acid to bite lines into the printing plate. That process must have taken quite a bit of labour to convey this natural event! It makes me think about what access everyday citizens of the time may have had to this imagery, or how prints such as this could have circulated or served some political or educational role in Dutch society. Curator: Indeed. In terms of design, the Romantic painters like Cornet frequently looked to landscapes to present an encounter between nature and the self. Here we notice a specific encounter following a storm—the artist marking the environment changed by its force. Notice too, though, how the fallen trees occupy most of the lower third of the visual plane, while in the upper registers he suggests regrowth through more densely interwoven marks forming verdant canopy. Editor: Seeing these prints offers an intimacy, almost. What was discarded or incidental for one might become meaningful and available to another in new contexts and collections. By re-presenting materials originally cast off from other practices we can re-frame how things take on significance within new social arrangements and even question old categories of value and meaning. Curator: A compelling proposition. It leaves one pondering the dialogue between disruption and continuity embedded within Cornet's atmospheric vision. Editor: I’ll be interested to observe how later artists adopt the formal ideas, along with means and social potential of printmaking within landscape painting moving forward.