Dover Castle Seen from Inland, with Houses in the Foreground c. 1797

Editor: So, this is Thomas Girtin's "Dover Castle Seen from Inland, with Houses in the Foreground." It looks like a quick sketch, very light, and almost dreamlike. I'm curious, what does this piece evoke in you? Curator: Ah, Girtin. For me, it’s a bittersweet whisper of England, almost a memory fading into the morning mist. Look how he's captured the vastness with so few lines. Does it feel melancholic to you, perhaps? A fleeting moment held in time? Editor: I can see that, it's like he's sketching a feeling more than a place. The houses seem so vulnerable at the foot of the hill. Curator: Precisely! And Dover Castle itself becomes less a fortress and more a sentinel watching over the ephemeral nature of life. It really makes you ponder, doesn't it? Editor: It does. I see it now, the impermanence of it all. Curator: Girtin, gone too soon, but he left us these little gems. Makes you wonder what else was in his soul, doesn't it?