Peace, Fort Hamilton c. 1888

Editor: This is William Merritt Chase's "Peace, Fort Hamilton," an oil painting made around 1888. I find the contrast between the cannons and the lush green grass so striking, like a military site being slowly reclaimed by nature. What stands out to you in this work? Curator: The painting certainly highlights the material realities of peace and war. Look at how Chase renders the cannons themselves. Are they presented as objects of power, or are they, through his impasto technique and use of oil paint, rendered inert, even picturesque? Editor: Picturesque is interesting, because I hadn't really thought of them as that. But now I see how they blend into the landscape. Curator: Exactly. And what does it mean to paint en plein air, a technique celebrated for capturing the immediacy of nature, at a site of military importance? The labor involved, the materiality of the paint itself, are all brought to bear on the landscape. How does that transform our understanding of it? Editor: It almost feels like he's emphasizing the *making* of peace, you know? Showing it's an active process rather than just an absence of conflict. The painting ISN’T really about a specific war... the focus isn't so much the historical battles. Curator: Precisely. It prompts us to consider the ongoing work involved in maintaining a peaceful society and the labor needed. How do we, as a society, transform tools of destruction into instruments of leisure or simply artifacts? Editor: This has given me a whole new way to think about landscape painting! I was focused on the scene itself, and not enough on the process and implications of the artist creating the artwork. Curator: And in considering that making, we gain insight into the material world and cultural values. Seeing how something is represented informs our understanding of the real.