Valley and Glaciers of Grindelwald in Canton of Berne c. 18th century

Curator: This is William Woollett's "Valley and Glaciers of Grindelwald in Canton of Berne," a landscape print from the late 18th century. Editor: The glaciers dominate, but the way the scene is built up from dark foreground to light mountains creates a sense of depth and receding space, almost a stage set. Curator: Woollett uses the sublime landscape to evoke the power of nature, something that was very popular at the time, and the mountains resonate with ideas about the strength and endurance of the natural world. Editor: Etchings like this one helped to popularize images of untouched landscapes, and the technology of reproducible images also made these landscapes accessible and appealing to a broader audience. Curator: Seeing these mountain images, I reflect on how they shaped our understanding of wilderness and the human relationship to it. Editor: And for me, thinking about the labor of creating the etching plates reveals the industry around representations of landscape. It's all connected.