November, from "Album of Rustic Subjects" 1859

Curator: Looking at Charles Jacque's "November, from 'Album of Rustic Subjects'," made in 1859, I'm struck by its complex layering. What catches your eye initially? Editor: It feels heavy, like a melancholic folk song. The somber palette amplifies a kind of end-of-season weariness that resonates. Almost like November itself. Curator: Jacque was deeply involved in the French landscape and Realist movements. It’s a woodcut print, so those details are meticulously carved, which adds to the narrative effect. Note the sheeps indoors, men preparing haystack indoors, the livestock grazing outdoors... It presents the entire lifecycle of the agricultural cycle during November. Editor: Right, you have a hierarchy of labor being depicted, all bound within seasonal time. I find myself wondering about access, like who are the 'actors' depicted here, what specific conditions are they in? I sense these figures are rendered at the whim of forces outside of themselves. Curator: Exactly. And this is where his deep love of pastoral life becomes poignant. There's this deep engagement with what is ordinary, not glamorous or showy, as the contemporary artist, Courbet would say. Editor: Yet that “ordinariness” is highly structured by existing social relationships of the time and can not be seen divorced from them. Curator: And do you feel he achieved something through the art-making process, bringing what is essentially a hard working class to the forefront? I mean is that revolutionary for that time? Editor: Art-making is intervention. This is what interests me. Curator: Well said. And there is something very enduring about it that can really take your breath away, even today. It holds time. Editor: And that is what will let us reflect on its present-day social meaning.