Sketch of a Boat Seen From Above 1832

Curator: Delacroix's "Sketch of a Boat Seen From Above," is a small drawing housed at the Harvard Art Museums. It presents an interesting, almost architectural view of a vessel. Editor: It feels like a ghostly blueprint, stripped bare of any romanticism typically associated with maritime scenes. Curator: The sketch’s materiality speaks volumes. It’s a glimpse into Delacroix’s process—the rapid strokes, the utilitarian nature of the sketch itself. How does it inform his larger, more celebrated works? Editor: It raises questions about maritime power structures, the labor involved in seafaring, and perhaps even the artist’s own relationship to themes of navigation and exploration within the context of 19th-century colonialism. Curator: Precisely, and the act of sketching, this rapid materialization of an idea, offers a way to consider artistic labor, the commodification of images, and the relationship between process and product. Editor: I find the starkness compelling, it prompts me to question the narratives we construct around the sea, and whose stories get prioritized in those renderings. Curator: It is a reminder that art is always embedded in material conditions, social forces, and networks of production and consumption. Editor: Indeed. It’s fascinating how such a small sketch can open up such expansive considerations.