Bay Scene; Sketches of Two Boats (from Sketchbook) 1890

Editor: This is Albert Bierstadt’s "Bay Scene; Sketches of Two Boats" from 1890. It’s a graphite pencil drawing, a pretty simple study compared to his large landscapes. I’m curious how such an established landscape painter approaches sketching a scene like this. What captures your attention in this unassuming drawing? Curator: Precisely that! It is about labor. We see not the finished product, but the means of production, laid bare. The materiality of graphite on paper, the swift movements to capture fleeting moments of light and form. Editor: So, you are not focused on the composition so much, but on his working method and art materials? Curator: Yes, I wonder, how does Bierstadt's status impact our reading of such sketches? We typically value finished landscape paintings, celebrating their picturesque beauty and romantic ideals. Here, though, the “high art” of painting blurs into a study of form, the basis for mass consumption: picture postcards, commercial art, engravings in illustrated magazines... what we might dismiss as craft. How does the materiality, the graphite itself, figure into the Gilded Age landscape of leisure he was crafting? Editor: That's interesting. You're making me rethink what I see as 'preliminary'. Seeing the materiality and thinking about those distribution networks – lithographs, magazines - opens a new way of understanding his paintings. Curator: Exactly! Consider also the notebook it originates from, its method of preservation, and its journey through the museum collection as a study of its own historical significance. Editor: I always thought about art materials as a simple, practical choice, but considering the materials, the labor involved, and where the art would end up being shown completely changes my view. Thank you. Curator: Absolutely. By attending to these material conditions, we might escape the picturesque, or at least situate that desire in its full, productive, and political context.