Tree Filled with Crows 1867

Curator: What strikes you first about this etching, looking at Charles-François Daubigny's "Tree Filled with Crows?" There's a real mood here. Editor: Brooding, almost Hitchcockian! It’s all these sharp lines, and those stark, bare branches. It feels like something’s about to happen. It also evokes questions around our relationship to ecology. Curator: Daubigny created this landscape scene around 1867. It’s a simple etching, black ink on paper, yet manages to capture the stark beauty of the French countryside. The Met holds it now. Editor: I'm wondering about Daubigny's choices here. Those crows seem like more than just crows; they almost represent surveillance or anxiety, you know, hovering around societal issues. Is this countryside being encroached upon? Are the crows a symbol for something negative happening to it? It resonates today, especially given our planetary crisis. Curator: He had a profound effect on the Impressionists with his intimate depictions of nature; I can’t say for sure it was fully intentional on Daubigny's side though, this social consciousness. Editor: But art doesn’t need to be literal. And here’s what is being literally depicted: There's a stillness, a sense of anticipation as crows fill these bare tree branches. And that single cart track gives an impression that one road leads to ecological ruin and another to hope... Curator: I can see that reading... for me, it's more like an arrested moment; you feel present as an unseen observer in that countryside. Daubigny takes this ordinary moment in the fields and reveals the beauty there, which the addition of crows only accentuate as these small messengers. The dark landscape evokes what lies ahead... something maybe unknowable yet... Editor: Indeed, the unknown and known merge together... It really does make you think about humanity's impact. And also how, in any era, are the powerful preying on everyone else in our political landscape, like crows? This is precisely what makes this etching such a vital reflection even today, the dialogue around this question. Curator: I am intrigued that we started with such distinct immediate impressions, and now conclude nearly in agreement. Shows the mark of compelling work.