Crossing the James River 1878

Editor: This is "Crossing the James River," made in 1878. It’s a drawing done with colored pencils. The scene is very tranquil, almost dreamlike, with soft, muted colors. What jumps out at you when you look at it? Curator: The composition is quite interesting. The artist utilizes a strong horizontal line with the river bisecting the pictorial plane. This, combined with the repetition of layered horizontal landscape elements, creates a structured pictorial space that almost flattens. Are you aware of how that impacts the reading of depth? Editor: Yes, I see that. The overlapping hills do flatten the perspective. So, you’re focusing on how the artist built the picture through these compositional elements, right? Curator: Precisely. Consider the balance of the composition. The ferryboat, placed slightly off-center, is counterweighted by the land mass in the distance. The eye travels smoothly across the horizontal landscape. Editor: It's true; my eyes keep moving left and right. So, it's not about the people on the boat, it's more about how all the formal pieces work together to make a complete view? Curator: It is not so much ‘not about’ anything. Rather, the elements are intrinsically related. Can you think of an alternate palette of colors the artist might have employed that would have resulted in an image conveying a totally different sense of depth and visual balance? Editor: That’s fascinating. I never considered how much the composition contributes to the tranquility of the image. I was focused on the calm subject. Curator: Exactly! We tend to view works such as this as somehow “capturing” the time. Actually the effect is meticulously planned to make it look timeless.