Drawing for ‘Punch’: Scene in the Row 

Curator: This is John Leech's sketch, "Drawing for ‘Punch’: Scene in the Row," part of the Tate collection. The energy of the figures is palpable, isn't it? Editor: It’s scratchy! All quickly jotted lines. I wonder what pencil he used to get such variation. Curator: The Row, in Hyde Park, was a parade ground for the fashionable. The top hats, the carriages... they're symbols of status and social ritual. Editor: Ritual indeed. All that display, that intense performance of class... Look at how much space the fabric of those dresses occupies relative to the people! Curator: Exactly! Leech’s sketch captures the performative nature of this social space. It still resonates today, doesn't it, this dance of appearances? Editor: True, but what was the material cost for those displays? All that textile production, the mining for pigments...it all leaves a mark. Curator: A potent reminder of how symbols are always intertwined with material realities. Editor: Precisely. It makes you wonder about the stories behind what’s *not* depicted too—the laborers who facilitated this world.