Gate of the Highlands, Cornwall, 1871 (from Sketchbook) 1870

Curator: This is Daniel Huntington's "Gate of the Highlands, Cornwall, 1871," a pen-and-ink sketch originating from a sketchbook. It's currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: My immediate impression is one of restraint. The composition, split across the sketchbook's center, has a hushed, almost reverent quality. The delicacy of the pen work and minimal shading add to that. Curator: Huntington, primarily a portrait painter, traveled extensively. This sketch offers a glimpse into the Romantic era's fascination with landscape, particularly how rugged environments became associated with national identity. The highlands were often portrayed as the soul of a nation, places of historical and cultural significance. Editor: The repeated jagged lines establish the peaks of those far-off mountainous ridges; they almost reverberate across the horizon. Do you get a sense of the sublime there, Curator? The scale is vast, yet it’s confined within this small frame. Curator: The sketch may explore the visual rhetoric of "picturesque" landscapes, popularized through guidebooks and tourism. These were constructed, consumable images aimed to capture a certain type of beauty and authenticity for an increasingly mobile middle class. I see Huntington grappling with those themes. Editor: True, it flirts with the picturesque. The tonal variation achieves a depth, but I sense more of an engagement with the sheer physical essence of this region. Notice the artist’s delicate articulation of each individual undulation in those slopes. Curator: This was part of a larger sketchbook and wasn't intended for public consumption, as opposed to the finished and exhibited canvases, the elite patrons and cultural institutions influenced which scenes were viewed as significant and worthy of artistic attention. Editor: Right, perhaps a private, almost academic examination. Regardless, Huntington’s work captures the highlands’ stark character in its purest form. The simplicity is powerful; an uncluttered vision of Cornwall's landscape. Curator: Indeed, a private vision, revealing a complex interplay between place, identity, and artistic intention within its unadorned lines. Editor: Precisely, a very simple expression, but that evokes a certain timeless, quiet grandeur of the Highlands.