Landscape Sketch with Bridge and Castle 

John Sell Cotman created this small landscape sketch with graphite on paper, presenting a scene anchored by a bridge and castle-like structure. The faintness of the graphite lends the work a delicate, almost ephemeral quality. The composition is structured around horizontal layers, defining the foreground, the middle ground with the bridge and castle, and the suggestion of a distant background. Cotman employs short, broken lines and smudging to create texture and suggest form, particularly in the foliage and the stonework of the bridge. This technique, characteristic of sketching, captures the essence of the scene with minimal detail, evoking a sense of atmospheric perspective and spatial depth. Considered through a structuralist lens, the sketch operates as a system of signs, where each line and shadow contributes to the overall representation of a landscape. Cotman's drawing, however, stops short of firm representation, challenging the viewer to complete the image in their mind's eye. This places emphasis on perception and the cognitive processes involved in interpreting visual information.