Three Armed Riders Escorting Prisoners near Reims 1825

Peter von Hess made this watercolor, Three Armed Riders Escorting Prisoners near Reims, sometime in the early 19th century. Watercolor is a very direct medium, unforgiving because it is difficult to erase. To master it requires a light touch, a sure hand. Here, the washes of pigment evoke the vast sky, but also the grim realities of the scene. This isn’t a story of glory, but of conquest, and the relatively quick medium of watercolor is well-suited to that purpose. Consider how the material itself—the paper and the pigment—becomes an active part of the picture. The prisoners are weighed down by the scene’s somber grays and browns, while the riders are brightly colored. Hess used the inherent qualities of his materials to emphasize a social hierarchy, and their relationship to land and labor. It is a sophisticated use of this subtle medium.