Meadow with Brook, Medfield, Massachusetts 1909

Editor: Here we have Robert Lewis Reid's "Meadow with Brook, Medfield, Massachusetts," created around 1909. The oil paint application gives the whole scene such a hazy, dreamy quality. What do you see in this piece beyond just a pretty landscape? Curator: It’s fascinating to consider Reid’s work within the broader context of early 20th-century American art. On the one hand it feels pastoral and removed, and we must ask to what degree is that deliberate. To what extent does it engage with the realities of the time, realities marked by industrialization, urbanization, and anxieties about a rapidly changing social fabric. Can landscape painting be read as a form of escapism, a nostalgic longing for a simpler, perhaps romanticized past, accessible only to the wealthy? Editor: That's an interesting perspective. I was just enjoying the pretty colours, to be honest. Are you suggesting that his choice to paint 'en plein air' contributes to this sense of privilege? Curator: Precisely. The very act of transporting oneself and one's materials to a rural setting, of having the leisure to observe and capture the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere, speaks to a certain level of economic and social freedom, especially given this time period when movements of peoples are tightly associated with race and socioeconomic status. Whose voices, and whose visions, are centered here, and whose are marginalized? Editor: So even something as seemingly innocuous as a landscape painting can carry complex social and political undertones. I’ll definitely look at landscapes differently now! Curator: Indeed. It encourages us to constantly question what is seen and what remains unseen, in art, as in society.