The Return 

Editor: So, we're looking at "The Return," an oil painting, and although we don’t have a specific date for it, it’s by Gustave Boulanger. There's something really melancholic about this scene; the muted colours and the endless landscape. What's your read on it? Curator: Well, right away I get this feeling of… dust. Do you ever feel like certain paintings just *taste* like something? This one’s all parched throat and grit under the fingernails. It smells like time slowly baking the earth. The light... it makes me think of longing, a wistful backwards glance at something that might have been. But tell me, what pulls *you* into the picture? Editor: I think it’s the figures, the woman and the child leading the horse. There’s a sense of journey, of leaving, but the title implies… returning. Curator: Precisely! Boulanger, dabbling in what was then the very fashionable genre of Orientalism, gives us a snapshot heavy with untold stories. What were they doing out there in the first place? Why are they returning? Is that settlement in the distance home, or another temporary stop? We don’t know. Boulanger presents more a mood than a clear narrative, don't you think? He's whispering, not shouting. Editor: Definitely whispering! It makes you fill in the gaps yourself. It's interesting how the Romantic style plays into this "Orientalist" theme. There’s such a focus on feeling, on atmosphere… Curator: Ah, yes, exactly! Think about those academic salon painters… but with sand in their shoes and the sun in their eyes. The painting itself is almost a memory, faded and dreamlike. He isn't documenting, he's imagining... And maybe even remembering something lost to himself, which makes it poignant, don't you agree? Editor: I see it! All this imagining and reflecting... thanks! Curator: The pleasure’s all mine!