Landschaft Bei Olevano 1815

Curator: This is Joseph Anton Koch's "Landschaft Bei Olevano," created around 1815. It's rendered in pencil and charcoal. What strikes you first? Editor: It's incredibly bleak, despite the activity depicted. Look at the worn rendering of those materials: pencil and charcoal. You get the impression that Olevano, rendered in such accessible material, wasn't the most flourishing or welcoming location, or perhaps even time. Curator: Koch was a leading figure in the German Romantic movement, finding the sublime in nature, which could be overwhelming and indifferent to human struggles. I think he uses charcoal to its fullest, to communicate the very real hardship and precariousness of living in rural Italy at the time, especially on the border. Editor: I agree. Notice how the landscape isn’t just a backdrop but is actively shaping the lives of these figures? It's interesting that you call Koch’s landscape ‘sublime,’ though, as in a Romantic sense. This reads more like labor to me. Like work. Look at the material reality here – those figures aren't leisurely wandering. They're hauling things, clinging to each other. Curator: Perhaps that duality is precisely Koch's genius! He holds in tension the objective difficulty with the subjective awe one finds, even when struggling. Observe, too, how the sharp lines give a feeling of precariousness. It's the line quality which renders such complex relations of landscape to human experience. The figures appear buffeted by the elements. Editor: Yes, those stark lines emphasize the struggle for survival, don’t they? This isn’t idealized pastoral life, even though it hints at it through the style. There’s a grit to the execution, down to those very marks making up this place, that underscores the effort required simply to exist within it. The material matches the message. Curator: A very material approach, indeed. For me, it all comes back to Koch’s capacity to make the human spirit visible. Editor: Well, and Koch helps us see the spirit and the work necessary to keep it going. Thanks.