Lugano 

Curator: This is Hercules Brabazon Brabazon's watercolor painting, "Lugano." Look at the washes! My first thought: faded postcard dreams. It's both immediate and distant. What jumps out at you? Editor: It's interesting you say that, because it feels very much of its time, while the style softens to such a point where it abstracts place into formlessness, doesn't it? I wonder if Brabazon aimed to capture a modern experience of landscape: always shifting, fleeting? Curator: Fleeting, yes! Like catching the sunlight flickering on the lake. Brabazon's handling of the watercolour medium really adds to this impression; plein-air technique suits his ability to capture light. Do you see how he's used these colours that aren't truly "realistic" to capture this light and its effect? Editor: Indeed, consider what 'landscape' meant at this time. Emerging industrialization altered people's understandings of their own place in the natural environment. The city became a site of new identities for formerly rural communities, didn't it? In this picture, you get an emerging cityscape alongside mountains. I read this as a metaphor. Curator: Maybe so, or maybe he saw the colors just this way! I often wonder if we over-intellectualize these things. Brabazon has captured this beautiful spot in its own language. So free and quick and joyful, I like to think he just wanted to record how the colors made him feel. It's not necessarily 'supposed' to be some massive intellectual point! Editor: And, fair enough. Maybe Brabazon thought of it differently. But this kind of subject – how we respond to space and how that response relates to societal shifts is still very prescient. Curator: Precisely. And who is to say either is wrong. Whatever way it's taken, Brabazon really did give us such a stunning, expressive take on this locale. A perfect little gem. Editor: I agree, this picture speaks volumes to contemporary views on location, perception, and how they intertwine. It also asks a timeless question, about what our presence does, for better and worse, to landscape and place.