Lac Fucino Et Les Montagnes Des Abruzzes 

Editor: Here we have Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld's, *Lac Fucino Et Les Montagnes Des Abruzzes*. It's rendered in oil paint, presumably en plein-air, and strikes me as incredibly serene. What can you tell me about it? Curator: Look at how the materiality itself conveys this. Bidauld used oil paint, a readily available commodity even then. But the very act of painting en plein-air points us to the logistical concerns, and even labor of transporting materials, mixing pigments, and the performative aspect of creating art outside a studio setting. Consider how the very tools of production influence our perception. Editor: That’s interesting, I hadn’t considered that! The 'plein-air' aspect makes me think about how directly Bidauld was engaging with his environment and how that informs his artistic decisions, the availability of the materials or the time he had to produce the artwork. Curator: Exactly! And Bidauld wasn't just capturing a scene, he was participating in a developing artistic practice. How does this inform our understanding of Realism versus Romanticism for example, labels which are often assigned to such works? What material conditions made possible this shift from studio landscapes towards a more direct representation of nature and labor? Editor: So you're saying we need to examine the role of the artist as a worker, processing and transforming raw materials from nature and available industry into this “realistic” representation of a landscape? Curator: Precisely! The production and distribution of the very paint he uses becomes relevant. How readily accessible was it? Whose labor extracted those pigments? The answers to these questions directly shape the narrative and even aesthetic value we assign to this landscape. Editor: That reframes everything. Thinking about the sourcing of the materials, labor of plein-air, it connects the painting back to the wider social and economic systems of the time, which were in constant shift and construction. Thanks for opening my eyes! Curator: It is important to keep an open mind.