Rosalind In The Forest 

Editor: This is "Rosalind in the Forest" by Sir John Everett Millais, an oil painting, made *en plein air*. There's something quite staged about the composition though, despite its open-air creation. What’s your take? Curator: Well, let’s think about the material conditions that allowed Millais to even *attempt* this painting. Tube paints, readily available for the first time, were a key factor. Before, artists relied on workshop apprentices grinding pigments by hand. Now, they could focus on *application*. Notice the layers of paint and the brushwork, which highlight the industrial manufacture embedded within supposedly natural settings. Editor: I see what you mean! And that also impacts the depiction of Rosalind's clothes. You notice how richly colored and textured her outfit is compared to the backdrop. Curator: Precisely! Consider the labor that went into producing such fabrics – the spinning, weaving, and dyeing, the complex global trade networks. The painting becomes a showcase, not just of Rosalind, but of the wealth of material available. The production process is, in a sense, embedded in the very surface we observe. Editor: That's a great way to consider the role of wealth within the artwork itself. Is Millais almost making a commentary on that fact? Curator: The pre-Raphaelites were all about truth to nature, but that meant portraying the world, objects included, as commodities and items shaped by socio-economic circumstances. They're not just aesthetic things. Editor: I had never thought of plein air painting involving supply chains, but that makes so much sense now. Curator: Art doesn't emerge from thin air. Every brushstroke is informed by the political and social realities, reflected through paint, brushes, canvas and also the person depicted within the frame.