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Editor: This work by François Louis Thomas Francia, held at the Tate, features a figure walking toward a distant windmill. The blue monochrome gives it such a wistful feeling. What do you see in this piece? Curator: It’s interesting to consider how Francia, working in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, uses this blue wash. It evokes a sense of Romanticism, a longing for the past. But consider the windmill—what did it symbolize at the time? Editor: I guess progress? Rural life? Curator: Exactly. Francia is playing with the symbolism of the rural idyll versus encroaching industrialization. The image suggests a commentary on the changing landscape and its social implications. Editor: That's fascinating; it gives the work so much more depth. Curator: Indeed, seeing it through this lens makes us question the narrative Francia is presenting.