Songs: "Mary, dear Mary list awake. And take the moon thy slumbers break..." 1822

Curator: Good morning. Editor: Thanks for meeting with me. So, this print is by Henry Thomas Alken, titled "Songs: 'Mary, dear Mary list awake. And take the moon thy slumbers break...'", and it's from 1822. I saw it at The Met the other day. The scenes are so disjointed, like little vignettes, and the lines feel quite scratchy. What do you see in this piece, in terms of its formal qualities? Curator: Notice first how Alken divides the pictorial space. Six distinct vignettes, each a compressed narrative, are presented on a single plane. The eye jumps between these tableaus. There is no clear focal point; rather, Alken demands our attention is given equally to each encapsulated moment. It's almost as if he wants to disrupt our ability to see it as a whole, and each segment vies for visual dominance. The scratchy lines you mention are interesting in the context of the caricature; Alken deliberately abandons smooth transitions and conventional perspective in favor of a kind of brutal honesty. Would you agree? Editor: That’s a great point about disrupting perspective! Now that you mention it, I see that some scenes are clearly more polished and traditional than others; in others, the caricatures feel heightened. Are there symbolic qualities you might read in the piece based on the overall organization, perhaps even beyond caricature? Curator: Certainly. The composition is neither symmetrical nor orderly, which might initially read as haphazard, or uneducated. But within the disruption is a carefully crafted juxtaposition: the top vignettes show interactions amongst people of wealth, while those toward the bottom show interactions with lower class citizens. Alken challenges the viewer to reconcile all six segments on the basis of what is consistent with a formal system and with nature itself, revealing deeper connections or even dissonances between characters of vastly different positions in society. What are your thoughts on that? Editor: I hadn’t considered that juxtaposition. Seeing it now, it really changes my view of the overall image. The implied dissonance creates another layer of complexity! Thank you! Curator: Indeed. It is a rewarding piece if we give pause to consider all it has to offer us formally.