Lynmouth Harbour, Devon 

Curator: Edward John Poynter’s watercolor, "Lynmouth Harbour, Devon," offers a charming view of a coastal town. Editor: It evokes a gentle quietude. The muted tones create a sense of calm, a placid harbour scene. It looks inviting. Curator: Poynter’s application of watercolor lends itself well to the scene. Note how he captures the light reflecting off the water and the soft, atmospheric quality of the sky. The texture is quite subtle. Editor: But isn’t this selective? Doesn't it romanticize a potentially difficult life? Port towns were sites of both commerce and intense labour; they are seldom the idyllic place portrayed here. Consider the global economy these scenes were implicated in. Curator: That's certainly a valid consideration. However, formally speaking, consider how the composition, with its high vantage point, emphasizes the arrangement of forms. The rooftops, the harbour wall, the tower – they all create a balanced yet dynamic interplay. The verticality of the tower offsets the horizontal expanse of the sea. Editor: And even this structure, which you note vertically, represents a type of human intervention predicated upon the exploitation of the surrounding natural landscape and labour. It might also evoke a nostalgic colonial perspective, picturing the landscape from a place of bourgeois comfort, distancing the viewer from the realities of everyday existence for the working-class. Curator: The brushwork, especially in rendering the foliage and water, adds a textural dimension. There's a softness to the edges. Editor: But one could also argue that its strengths paradoxically illuminate some of the erasures inherent within idealized landscape paintings. What is excluded here, for instance? Curator: The painting presents us with a study in tranquility, its aesthetic qualities fostering quiet contemplation. Editor: Agreed. The choice to immortalize this landscape, though seemingly innocuous, warrants deeper inspection as a document of culture and aspiration.