Study of Trees 

Curator: Here we have William Collins' "Study of Trees," held in the Tate collection. There's no exact date, but Collins lived from 1788 to 1847. Editor: It feels like a memory, a quiet whisper of nature. I'm drawn to the almost skeletal quality of the central tree—its branches reaching like tentative fingers. Curator: Absolutely. Collins, in his commitment to sketching from nature, invites us to consider the very process of observation and replication. The paper itself shows the labor of creation. Editor: I find it deeply personal, this act of capturing the ephemeral. It's as if he's trying to hold onto something intangible, maybe the feeling of being in that very spot. I feel the need to wander. Curator: Indeed, we must always consider our own situatedness as the viewer of landscape and the labor required to produce these fleeting moments. Editor: Maybe it's a lesson on how to properly observe, to truly absorb the world around us before it vanishes.