Partial Landscape with Trees; verso: Cattle in a Landscape 1859

Editor: Here we see "Partial Landscape with Trees" by Benjamin Champney. It appears to be a pencil sketch. It’s so delicate, you can almost feel the artist’s hand moving across the paper. What strikes you about this piece? Curator: I see a direct engagement with the materials. It appears to be a page from a sketchbook. How does the immediacy of the sketch, the portability of the sketchbook itself, influence Champney’s interaction with the landscape and, ultimately, our understanding of it? Editor: So it’s less about the finished product and more about the act of creation itself? Curator: Precisely! The sketch reveals the artist’s process, his labor. We can see the repeated strokes, the adjustments, the very physical act of observing and translating the landscape. Editor: That’s fascinating. I never considered the sketchbook as a tool that shapes our view of the final artwork. Curator: Indeed, it brings us closer to the artist’s experience and the materiality of artmaking.