Goats c. 1630 - 1633

Editor: This is Claude Lorrain’s “Goats”, from… well, we don’t know exactly when! It’s held at the Harvard Art Museums. The etching feels both grand and intimate, doesn't it? What leaps out at you? Curator: Ah, Claude! He always pulls me into a tranquil dream. Look at the way the light filters through the trees, almost a stage curtain, wouldn’t you say? And those goats – are they the audience or the actors? Editor: They do seem rather unbothered! More like sleepy observers than performers. Curator: Exactly! It’s a theatre of nature, and we’re all invited to be quietly present. It whispers of pastoral ideals, a longing for simpler times, but with an awareness of the world's vastness. What do you make of the open landscape? Editor: I see the potential for endless stories, a road not yet taken. Curator: Nicely put. And perhaps that’s the point, isn’t it? That we each bring our own narrative to the scene. Editor: I never thought of landscape as a stage before. Now I’ll see every tree as an actor in its own play. Curator: And every goat a critic!