Plate X c. 19th century

Curator: Johann Caspar Nepomuk Scheuren gives us this etching called, simply, "Plate X." It’s held at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: Oh, that is lovely! It's like a dream, a memory half-faded. All those scribbled details feel so… ephemeral. Curator: You notice the contrast, then? That delicate balance between detailed foreground and more sketched-in mountains? It’s about seeing nature, but also about the fleeting quality of that vision. Editor: Precisely. The boats, the shacks—they become symbols of impermanence, reflecting how we, too, are just passing through. The ducks mirror our own journeys. Curator: Right, a symbolic echo. Scheuren captures the mood, that melancholic beauty of a riverside scene. Editor: Yes. This humble "Plate X," it speaks volumes about our fragile place in the world.