Seascape with Venice in the Distance 1896

Curator: It feels like time is slowing down. Is that just me? Editor: Probably the painting! What we're seeing is Charles Cottet’s "Seascape with Venice in the Distance," an oil executed in 1896. Cottet, primarily a post-impressionist, really plays with a muted palette here, a very distinctive choice. Curator: Muted is putting it mildly! It's all yellows and golds, like honey reflecting in water. You almost feel submerged in amber, thick and dreamy. Editor: Well, gold as a symbolic color does imply ideas around wealth, the divine, royalty... Venice as the powerful trade center. The golden light is a common attribute tied to the Venetian School. Even those puffy clouds mimic halos—although they feel a little irreverent for that reading. Curator: Reverent or irreverent, it definitely has a stillness to it, that light, that horizon…even the sails are still! What sort of emotion does that stillness bring? Maybe he had seen Venice changing too rapidly. Nostalgia, then. For something slowly slipping away, into that golden light. Editor: You know, boats themselves often carry the symbolism of journeys, departures, the unconscious even. Their placement and limited presence here could suggest Venice as this near-distant dreamscape…like some unreachable longing, perpetually shimmering out of grasp. Curator: Unreachable. Or perhaps perfectly self-contained, shimmering on its own terms. Cottet caught a slice of timelessness, and reminds us of that bittersweet, magical quality we seek out on our travels. The journey of simply standing here…witnessing. Editor: It is almost as if by mirroring and softening we reflect the image to project something within, making memories as they unfold. What more can art possibly do?