Three Studies: Tree; Girl with a Cat; Cow (from Sketchbook) 1835 - 1839

Curator: This is Francis William Edmonds' "Three Studies: Tree; Girl with a Cat; Cow (from Sketchbook)," created between 1835 and 1839. Editor: It’s almost ghostly, these pale pencil sketches on paper. Fleeting studies of very ordinary things. Curator: Exactly. Edmonds was working during a period when artists were increasingly concerned with representing everyday life and scenes familiar to a growing middle class. His role at the Bank for Savings allowed him an understanding of their milieu. Editor: And this humble sketchbook format emphasizes the directness of the creative act. Look at the immediacy in the rough shading of the tree, likely an attempt to render something en plein air before committing it to a more durable surface or format. We see the labor here, in trying to understand a moment. Curator: Indeed. The act of sketching itself, like keeping a diary, had a certain social value at this time—cultivating a habit of observation, memory. Editor: It strikes me too how utilitarian art materials such as pencil and paper open art-making to a wider circle, allowing the pursuit to be intertwined with more accessible tools. No specialized guild workshops here, just someone practicing seeing. Curator: Very true. Think about the growth of literacy during this time. Sketches like these perhaps circulated amongst a close-knit community of family and friends. Editor: The image also conveys an appreciation for the organic and natural, the tree being as studied as the human and the animal. The hierarchy dissolves, emphasizing their shared matter and perhaps hinting at our dependence on them, too. Curator: Certainly, Edmonds here isn't bound by the strictures of academic art, able to investigate his world informally, which grants later viewers such as ourselves access into an artistic experience beyond merely "art for art's sake." Editor: In viewing Edmonds' sketches, I sense less an attempt to create a "great work," but an appreciation of both the act of artistic engagement and for rendering subjects usually deemed unworthy of a great master. Curator: I think it offers us a window into both Edmonds' immediate world and also into broader shifts occurring in artistic practice. Editor: It leaves me reflecting on how seemingly minor works such as this offer some of the biggest insights.