Sheep on the Downs 

Curator: Here we have "Sheep on the Downs," an oil painting attributed to James Ward. I'm particularly drawn to how it participates in the Romantic tradition of landscape art. Editor: The light, oh my goodness, it's pure bliss! Like honey drizzled across the hills and those fluffy sheep, they almost seem to glow. Gives me the feeling of warm nostalgia. Curator: Absolutely, that's a key element of its Romantic style. But it's vital to acknowledge the socio-political context. Land was a hotly contested area, so portraying it could serve to underscore existing power structures or make arguments for how things ought to be in ways that are subtle or even not. Editor: You think so? For me, it evokes the gentleness of a lullaby, you know? A daydream with woolly clouds and gentle breezes. Those sheep are characters from a child's storybook. Curator: It's important, however, to examine whose perspective is highlighted in these depictions. Pastoral scenes often conveniently omit the labor, dispossession, and social inequalities inherent in rural life, thereby constructing and sustaining an ideal. It encourages viewers to maybe disregard the less glamorous realities that funded leisure in the cities. Editor: I can respect that but isn't there room to simply bask in beauty? Perhaps a way to view it through the lens of the period when connecting with nature was regarded as transformative. It feels a bit much to read class conflict into it all, every single time. Curator: Consider this; James Ward produced artworks which could promote, whether intentionally or inadvertently, a particularly skewed or biased reading of countryside life at the period when urbanisation became an overwhelmingly unstoppable reality. These sheep, idyllic as they seem, become emblems in a very charged debate around labor and belonging. Editor: Hmmm, still I'd say the beauty's the first thing to hit you square in the face. Thanks for reminding me that my feelings might be entangled in power relations I had never thought about. Curator: That's the power and risk of engaging in artworks from different moments in time and, like that tree behind the sheep nibbling the shrub, it makes us grow toward a new light. Editor: You always open my eyes wider. This dialogue sure shifted something within me too, from pastoral innocence toward something far knottier, but a lot richer in feeling. Thanks!