Yarmouth Roads: Open View of the Estuary 

Curator: I'm drawn to the vastness of this ink drawing, it feels expansive, almost dreamlike. Editor: That's Yarmouth Roads: Open View of the Estuary by Thomas Rowlandson, made with pen and ink. I read it as a study of transit and embarkation. Curator: Transit is right. Look at the way the ships are receding into the horizon, fading out like memories. It's poignant, this sense of departure. Editor: Consider the figures. They are clustered on the shores, seemingly caught between land and sea, representing a kind of in-betweenness. Curator: Yes! And the estuary itself becomes this liminal space, full of symbolic potential, a place of thresholds and transformations. Editor: Seeing this now, I'm struck by how Rowlandson has captured both the melancholy and the excitement of leaving. A bittersweet goodbye, perhaps? Curator: It feels like a universal experience, really. Editor: Quite so.