Solway Moss 1816

Editor: This is "Solway Moss" by Thomas Goff Lupton, a sepia-toned print. The vast landscape and stormy sky feel so evocative. What does this scene communicate to you? Curator: It speaks to the fraught relationship between humanity and the land, particularly within the context of the Enclosure Acts. Can you see how the figures and animals are almost dwarfed by the immensity of the landscape? Editor: Yes, they seem so small. Curator: This contrast highlights the precarity of rural life and displacement experienced by many due to land privatization. It's a narrative of dispossession and environmental change rendered in tones of melancholy. Editor: That gives me a completely different perspective on the artwork. Thank you. Curator: My pleasure, it is important to read images through the lens of social history.