The Catskill Mountains 1872

Curator: This is "The Catskill Mountains" by Charles Herbert. Look at the layering of the landscape! Editor: It evokes a sense of peaceful rural labor. I can almost smell the hay. Curator: Herbert's artistic practice intersects with the development of leisure landscapes in America and the socio-economic shifts of the time. Editor: The artist’s process here seems fairly straightforward; the oil paints are applied in a way that reflects the reality of agricultural land use, shaping our understanding of both labor and the landscape. Curator: It's also interesting to consider how the representation of landscapes like this contributed to a developing national identity. Who was included and excluded from that vision? Editor: Yes, the materials themselves—oil on canvas—speak to a tradition of art making accessible to a specific class, which in turn influenced the scene depicted. Curator: Reflecting on its social and political contexts encourages us to think about landscape as a site of both production and representation. Editor: Exactly. Thinking about what makes up both the painting and the landscape broadens our perspective.