Schloss Pouch c. 19th century

Curator: Let’s explore Schloss Pouch, an intriguing landscape etching by Johann Philipp Wilhelm Lenz. Editor: There’s something melancholic about it, a sort of wistful charm. The limited tonal range almost mutes the scene. Curator: Notice how the artist arranges the pastoral foreground, the reclining figures and sheep, as a repoussoir to draw the eye toward the castle in the distance. The architecture provides a fascinating counterpoint. Editor: I'm more intrigued by the labor embedded in the scene, the shepherd’s quiet dominion over the flock. One also wonders about the process to create the etching, all those painstaking lines. Curator: Indeed, the formal tension between the ordered castle and the natural chaos is quite compelling. Editor: It certainly gives you food for thought about the people and tools that made this picture, and the lives they led.