Under the Cliffs, 1871 (from Sketchbook) 1870

Daniel Huntington created this graphite sketch, "Under the Cliffs," in 1871. Notice the imposing verticality, where rugged cliffs dominate the composition, creating a narrow corridor of light and space. The texture is rendered through dense, directional lines evoking a sense of depth. Huntington's technique invites a structuralist reading of the landscape, where the cliffs form a binary opposition, defining and confining the space between them. The boat, in the lower-left, offers a point of entry into the scene, yet remains dwarfed by the scale of the cliffs. The interplay of light and shadow suggests an interest in how perception shapes our understanding of space. Consider how the artist destabilizes the traditional landscape. The composition challenges fixed perspectives and prompts us to question our place within the natural world. Huntington uses form to evoke the sublime—a space where the imposing scale of nature confronts human perception.