A Barn and Other Buildings with Wooded Hills, Perhaps near the Llangollen Canal c. 1786 - 1800

Editor: So, we're looking at "A Barn and Other Buildings with Wooded Hills, Perhaps near the Llangollen Canal," by Philip James De Loutherbourg. It's a small pen and ink drawing, and I'm really struck by how immediate and kind of folksy it feels. What jumps out at you? Curator: It feels like a memory, doesn’t it? De Loutherbourg seems to have captured a fleeting glimpse of rural life. It's almost as if he's trying to hold onto the charm of the countryside as the industrial revolution encroached. Do you get a sense of that tension in the composition, with the wildness of the woods against the clearly man-made structures? Editor: I do, now that you mention it. It's like he's saying goodbye, maybe? Curator: Precisely! Perhaps sketching was his way of preserving what was precious to him. It makes you wonder, what will we sketch to remember *our* disappearing landscapes?