Burgruine, vorn auf einer Brücke zwei Männer 

Curator: Before us, we have "Burgruine, vorn auf einer Brücke zwei Männer," a watercolor and charcoal drawing on paper housed here at the Städel Museum, created by the French artist Jean-Joseph-Bonaventure Laurens. Editor: There’s a palpable sense of melancholy. The delicate washes of watercolor create an ethereal atmosphere around this decaying castle, perched precariously on the craggy rocks. It feels almost dreamlike. Curator: Note how Laurens uses the watercolor to describe the textures. The rough, unfinished stone of the ruins, for example, and how it contrasts with the smooth expanses of the distant landscape. The use of charcoal provides that stark contrast. Editor: Exactly. It's compelling to consider the labor involved. Someone quarried these stones, shaped them, transported them up this hill – all to create a structure that's now slowly returning to the earth from whence it came. There is an incredible amount of manhours represented within this single frame. Curator: The figures on the bridge are key structural components, aren’t they? They lead the eye into the composition and add to that romantic contemplation. They’re like witnesses to time itself. Editor: Indeed, who were the men portrayed? How are we, as the viewer, implicated into that legacy, as well? And let’s not forget that materials dictate much about its survival and handling – paper is far more fragile than oil on canvas. Curator: In considering Laurens’ Romantic lens, one could read that juxtaposition of temporality as essential to the period itself – nature as sublime and powerful. Editor: From a materialist perspective, this artwork prompts us to consider the environmental context: how human endeavor interfaces and ultimately succumbs to nature’s inexorable forces, revealed over time. Curator: An apt way to consider this image as it reflects both skill and symbol. Editor: A striking interplay that enriches our viewing experience, indeed.