Autumn Wood 1872

William Hart's "Autumn Wood" is an exercise in the craft of illusion, created with oil paint, brushes, and canvas. Hart meticulously applied layers of pigment, building up a complex and realistic composition. The skilled application of paint mimics the textures of bark, foliage, and water. He uses an economy of strokes, yet manages to capture the nuances of light filtering through the trees. The result is a highly aestheticized image of nature, packaged for consumption by an increasingly urbanized populace. Paintings like this were luxury goods, and the market for them was made possible by an economy increasingly stratified by class. The artist's labor is less apparent than the finished image. By emphasizing the hand skills that went into the painting's making, we recognize the value of the maker, and how such skills contributed to the economic and cultural life of the time.