Gezicht op het Saint James's Park te Londen gezien vanaf Buckingham House 1752

Robert Sayer created this print of Saint James's Park in London in the late 18th century. Sayer uses a rigid structure of perspective to frame the park and city. The eye is drawn along precise lines of trees and buildings to the horizon. However, it is the destabilization of space that I find compelling here. Sayer presents a flattened view, where the depth of the park is compressed. Note how the figures in the foreground are similarly sized to those further away, disrupting the usual sense of spatial recession. This flattening effect challenges traditional landscape painting by questioning the stability of visual perception. In this composition, Sayer is not just depicting a scene; he is also engaging with ideas about how we perceive and understand space. What seems like a straightforward view is, in fact, a complex interplay of lines and perspective, inviting us to reconsider the way we see the world.