Siward Stone, Essex 

Curator: John Inigo Richards, born in 1731, painted this watercolor titled “Siward Stone, Essex.” It's a small work, only about 14 by 21 centimeters. Editor: My first thought? It's delightfully unassuming! Like a half-remembered dream of a cozy cottage. Curator: Richards was a founding member of the Royal Academy, and his landscapes often depicted estates and country houses. It is interesting to consider the politics of representation at the time. Editor: The wash of the watercolor gives it a real sense of place. You can almost smell the damp earth and hear the birds hiding in those trees. Curator: Absolutely, and the fact that these houses are still lived in speaks to the durability of systems, social and structural. Editor: It’s a modest piece, but it hums with a quiet, persistent beauty. I get lost imagining who might be sipping tea inside. Curator: Indeed, pondering the structures that shaped their lives and continue to shape ours. Editor: Art keeps doing what it does best, holding a mirror up to the world, and ourselves.