Landscape with a Large Building 1818 - 1883

Curator: Well, isn't that something? I immediately feel like I'm about to be caught in a downpour in a landscape of secrets. Editor: That’s interesting. What stands out to me is the contrast between the imposing architecture and the wild sky. We’re looking at a watercolor titled "Landscape with a Large Building," attributed to Franz von Hauslab the Younger, likely created sometime between 1818 and 1883. It’s currently housed here at The Met. Curator: Secrets, I tell you! This building squats in the distance, so still and perfect. Do you think it’s meant to be a fortress or maybe some forgotten imperial manufactory? The clouds are almost theatrical! Editor: It's a potent combination. The artist definitely understood the power dynamics inherent in architecture. Notice how the monumental building dominates the scene, subtly evoking the rigid societal structures of the time. I think von Hauslab plays with the themes we associate with both Romanticism and Neoclassicism. The building itself has the order of Neoclassical design while the overall atmosphere, that turbulent sky, embodies the sublime feeling sought by the Romantics. Curator: Sublimity and state control! I bet he had a sense of humor, the artist, using watercolors for something so grand. Do you think there is also a melancholy about progress there, the small greens turned into buildings. I almost feel an elegy of past times... Editor: Absolutely, I see the building not just as a representation of power, but perhaps even a symbol of colonial expansion, casting a long shadow over the "natural" landscape. The building is the focus, but what does it obscure, what’s left unsaid by that large façade? Curator: Ooh, obscured histories. I think the work captures a lot of that late-Romantic tension with industrial advance. Thanks for pulling out all the nuance of this particular moment. Editor: And thank you, you gave the whole composition so much soul with just a few lines! Together, these reflections offer different perspectives.