Dogana, Venice 

Editor: We're looking at "Dogana, Venice," a pencil sketch by Muirhead Bone. There's a hazy quality to it, almost like looking at a memory. What strikes me is the sheer number of boats and masts—a dense, working harbor. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see a document of labor. The sketch focuses on the infrastructure and the tools of commerce, really. It's not a romantic view of Venice; it's about the practical reality of a port city. The Dogana, the customs house itself, dominates the composition. Editor: So, the drawing isn't just about aesthetics, it's about showing the materials, the hard work that went into making Venice what it was. Curator: Precisely. Consider the medium: pencil. A readily available tool for documenting the scene directly. How does that accessibility inform your understanding of the work? It’s about conveying information, about a specific kind of industry. Editor: I guess I hadn't really thought of Venice as being an "industrial" place in that way. So, focusing on the pencil drawing and seeing this as a place where people worked highlights that relationship. It makes me rethink what I know of the place, beyond the romantic idea of it. Curator: Right. The sketch makes it a place of human intervention. It directs attention towards the means by which this floating city functions. So, what initially appeared picturesque reveals itself to be material, hard-won, built. Editor: It's like Bone uses the simplicity of the materials to ground the dreamy idea of Venice to its true nature as a centre of trade and labor. It certainly changed the way I see it! Curator: It underscores how every romantic notion rests upon a foundation of physical labor and material realities.