Open Landscape with Low Hills. Summer 1840 - 1905

Curator: This is Valentin Ruths’ "Open Landscape with Low Hills. Summer," which experts place between 1840 and 1905. It’s currently held at the SMK, the National Gallery of Denmark. It's painted with oils on a wood panel, seemingly en plein air. What strikes you immediately? Editor: Its somber tonality! While landscapes typically aim for verdant cheerfulness, this one’s all gentle greys and hushed stillness. The composition directs my eye into the distance, promising—and withholding—a sun-drenched meadow. Curator: Indeed, the limited palette demands a closer inspection. Ruths has rendered textures—the grassy foreground, the cloudy sky—through subtle gradations of tone, showcasing the materiality of the paint itself. Semiotically, the lack of vibrant color perhaps suggests a deeper, less celebratory engagement with nature. Editor: Perhaps! I'm thinking more about what "Summer" meant for agricultural workers then. Did this reflect back-breaking, relentless labor? Was it about reaping, sowing, moving materials in monochrome fields? Were the trees being stripped or planted in ways invisible to modern eyes? This painting doesn’t depict idle pleasure. Curator: A valid consideration. However, focusing on the composition, note the balanced arrangement of forms. The low hills provide a backdrop against the atmospheric sky. Also the careful distribution of dark and light contributes to the harmony, if not peace. The structural elegance gives the landscape a sense of timelessness. Editor: But even timelessness can be work. Labor leaves marks, visible in landscapes altered for agriculture or even those deemed simply "beautiful". How was this panel prepared, for example? How were the pigments sourced, mixed? Someone labored long hours. Curator: Undoubtedly. Yet, Ruths transcends mere depiction, employing pictorial elements to evoke a profound contemplation of nature’s intrinsic forms, its subtle but complex arrangement. It allows for, perhaps, an awakening of something more… meditative. Editor: Well, whatever prompted Ruths, I see a stark beauty rooted firmly in the daily toil it suggests. It makes you ponder the land's stories, and that resonates profoundly. Curator: It does that. Ruths invites us to experience the essence of landscape, revealed in tones and the simple interplay of line and mass.