Alpine Landscape; verso: Two Figural Sketches, after a Sculpture Possibly 1872

Curator: This is John Singer Sargent’s “Alpine Landscape; verso: Two Figural Sketches, after a Sculpture,” a pencil drawing now held at the Harvard Art Museums. It strikes me as a study of scale and majesty. Editor: Yes, it’s a stark, somewhat lonely vista, isn’t it? The thin, almost fragile lines belie the monumentality of the Alps. Curator: The skeletal, upright posts in the foreground certainly create a sense of human presence dwarfed by nature, maybe even a suggestion of transience. They remind me of grave markers. Editor: I wonder about Sargent's motivations here. Was he simply capturing the beauty, or was he commenting on something deeper about humanity's place in the natural world, particularly in the face of rising industrialism? Curator: Perhaps both. The Alps have long held symbolic weight, representing both the sublime and the indomitable. Sargent, even in this quick sketch, seems to tap into that visual language. Editor: It definitely makes you think about how we frame and interact with landscapes, whether in art or in life, and the power structures embedded in those frames. Curator: Precisely. The very act of sketching is a kind of symbolic claiming of the land. Editor: I’ll definitely ponder the tension between claiming and respecting as I move on. Curator: I will contemplate how Sargent conveys such grandeur with such minimal means.