Autumn in the Mountains Possibly 1903

Curator: Looking at Adrian Stokes' "Autumn in the Mountains," now in the Tate, I'm immediately struck by the melancholy. It’s beautiful, but the muted gold and looming mountains give me a sense of nature's grandeur and impending stillness. Editor: Right. Notice how Stokes has handled the materiality, too. The canvas weave is quite visible beneath thin layers of paint, giving a sense of texture, of the real physicality of this place. Curator: It’s almost as if the starkness of the birch trees against the snow-capped peaks foreshadows winter's arrival, and the deer seem to be hurrying to find cover, to me anyway. Editor: Perhaps, but think of the social context: the painting’s scale suggests it was meant for a domestic setting. This connects it to the Arts and Crafts movement, where nature was brought indoors, democratizing art, not just for the elite. Curator: Still, there's an ethereal quality to it, a sort of timelessness. Editor: Agreed, a kind of crafted naturalism that brings the outside in. Curator: I see Stokes capturing the solemn beauty of nature. Editor: And I see a material object connecting art and daily life.