Landscape c. 19th century

Curator: Take a moment to consider this etching, "Landscape," by George Loring Brown. There's no date available. Editor: It feels... nostalgic? Like a memory viewed through time, a dream almost. Curator: Absolutely. Brown, working in the 19th century, clearly engages with the picturesque tradition. The process itself, etching, allowed for detailed line work, enabling mass production and wide distribution of such idyllic scenes for a growing middle class. Editor: There's a sense of romantic escapism about the scene, isn't there? A yearning for a simpler, more natural world. It's funny how industrialization paradoxically created a market for these idealized landscapes. Curator: Exactly! The means of production enabled the desire to escape production. Editor: So true. It kind of makes you wonder, what are we mass-producing today that creates the desire for something else? Curator: Good point. Always something. Always something.