Landscape with River; verso: blank page 1859

Editor: Here we have Benjamin Champney's "Landscape with River," a pencil sketch. The scene is delicate, almost ephemeral. What can you tell me about this piece? Curator: Consider the paper itself, its cost, its source. Sketching was a commercial skill, a means to an end. Was this sketch for Champney's own pleasure, or a preparatory study for a larger, perhaps commissioned, landscape painting destined for a wealthy patron's home? The labor invested, even in a sketch, speaks to the commodification of nature itself. Editor: That's a perspective I hadn't considered. Thanks! Curator: My pleasure.