Three Trees c. 1903 - 1904

Editor: Here we have Joan González's "Three Trees," a pencil drawing. There's a somber, almost haunting quality to the starkness of the trees against the softly rendered landscape. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see a quiet resistance. Consider the period; landscapes were often romanticized, idealized. González gives us instead a raw, unadorned depiction. Are these trees standing defiant, or are they vulnerable in their starkness? What do you think? Editor: I hadn't considered that defiance. Maybe it's both – a vulnerability that is, in itself, a kind of strength. Curator: Exactly. And that tension speaks volumes about the artist's social and political context, and perhaps even González's own state of mind. It makes us ponder the very definition of beauty.