Entrance to Canal (from Sketchbook) 1904

Editor: This is "Entrance to Canal (from Sketchbook)," a pencil drawing by Mary Newbold Sargent from 1904. It's a pretty simple sketch, but the mountains in the background give it a real sense of depth. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see a deliberate act of framing a landscape that's loaded with colonial implications. It's not just a picturesque scene; it's the entrance to a canal, likely the Corinth Canal, built by exploiting labor under conditions of intense geopolitical maneuvering. Sargent, as a privileged traveler, captures this scene, but does she engage with the complex power dynamics inherent in it? The very act of sketching flattens the social realities, turning people and their labor into part of the scenery. Editor: So, the simplicity is deceptive? It's not *just* a landscape drawing? Curator: Exactly. Consider the sketchbook itself, a tool of the privileged, used to document travels, to possess visually what is often economically and politically possessed as well. How do we read this “entrance”? Is it an entrance to a modern, industrial age, or to a continued exploitation? Sargent isn't necessarily critiquing this, but as viewers, we can and should ask these questions. Editor: That makes me think about who gets to decide what becomes "art" and what just remains labor, erased from the scene. Curator: Precisely. Who is visible and who is rendered invisible is a powerful statement, conscious or not. We can use this simple sketch to challenge dominant narratives about progress and see the Canal not just as an engineering feat, but as a site of intersectional human experience marked by power and inequality. Editor: I definitely see this drawing in a new light now. It's more complicated and layered than I initially thought! Curator: Art invites us to ask difficult questions about ourselves and the world we inhabit. This piece reminds us to always look beyond the surface.