Raby Castle, Co. Durham c. 1797

Curator: Thomas Girtin's watercolor, Raby Castle, Co. Durham. It’s a small thing, just 78 by 122 millimeters. Editor: It feels... haunted. Like a memory, fading at the edges. Curator: Girtin was so young when he made this, wasn't he? It's a castle, but the light softens the stone, almost erases the power structures it represents. Editor: Well, castles ARE about power. Who held it, who was kept out. That carriage at the gate, it emphasizes access and exclusion. Curator: Maybe. Or maybe Girtin was simply smitten with the light, trying to capture a fleeting moment. I mean, look at those pale blues in the sky... Editor: Still, the very act of memorializing a place like Raby Castle, particularly through the lens of romanticism, perpetuates a certain narrative of privilege. Curator: I think it’s more like an elegy—a fragile beauty infused with awareness of its own impending disappearance. Editor: Perhaps. But whose disappearance are we really talking about? Curator: True. Anyway, I love how something so tiny can evoke such grand, complicated feelings.