Rue du Mont Cenis 1884

Editor: This is Charles Adams Platt's "Rue du Mont Cenis," an etching from 1884. It gives the impression of looking up a narrow, steep street. The dark values create a moody atmosphere. What strikes you about its visual composition? Curator: The artist's calculated arrangement of tonal values commands my attention. Observe how the high contrast etching enhances the steep incline of the street, pulling our vision upward. Notice the subtle layering of hatching and cross-hatching; what affect does this produce? Editor: The effect, it seems, builds a remarkable textural density in the street itself as it catches the light and in the shaded walls which line the composition. The hatching also contributes to a spatial compression in the high horizon line. Curator: Precisely. Platt adeptly uses the inherent qualities of the etching medium, playing with the relationship of light and dark, line and form, to articulate depth. Consider the composition not merely as a representation of a street, but as an exercise in manipulating tonal relations to create a sense of place. Do you see a dialogue between the realism of the subject and the abstract qualities of its representation? Editor: I see it now, yes. I was initially drawn in by the implied narrative of a quiet Parisian street, but I see how the success of the artwork resides in the carefully rendered relationships between its various compositional elements. Curator: Indeed. This close visual reading yields much. Editor: Thank you, this has helped me look past the representational elements.