Mountainous Landscape with Approaching Thunderstorm 19th century

Curator: My first thought is about the weight and drama rendered through watercolor washes. The landscape ripples and heaves. Editor: Indeed! Here we have an anonymous 19th-century work, "Mountainous Landscape with Approaching Thunderstorm," currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I'm intrigued by the application of the plein-air method coupled with ink painting that creates this dramatic natural phenomenon. Curator: Approaching thunderstorm. A key Romantic symbol! Think about the sublime, and nature's awesome, untamable power reflected in a relatively domestic material like watercolor and paper. Do you notice how the artist emphasizes our relative insignificance with the herd of cattle casually grazing along the hillside? We expect the pastoral to stand in contrast to an incoming storm but instead they complement each other to convey the sublime. Editor: I see your point, but I am wondering what kind of pigment choices, in that era, could deliver the saturation in the approaching clouds and contrast that against the illuminated hill? I suspect some degree of craft-production involved preparing specialized paper surfaces, as that kind of tonal variation is notoriously hard to render! Curator: The color palettes may also trigger cultural associations with landscape paintings such as the cool blues, and greens reminiscent of Caspar David Friedrich and other Romantic era painters exploring similar symbolism, in particular feelings of awe, and transcendence. Editor: Absolutely! Looking closer at the terrain, I'm interested in the layered application of colors. One wonders whether those colors come from naturally sourced, rare materials traded globally, linking landscapes to commodity chains. Or did advances in chemistry permit more widespread availability? How did shifts in availability shape representation itself? Curator: So true! It’s fascinating how a seemingly straightforward landscape reveals such layers of artistic, historical, and even social complexity when we really dig in. The thunderstorm acts as a warning, as much of nature's power to destroy as to create and nurture. It is almost like a dark omen. Editor: It’s been enlightening to delve into the material reality behind what seems like a simply sublime scene, revealing the labour and material conditions embedded within the landscape tradition. Curator: Yes, considering its symbolic weight and its implications. What a beautiful conversation about an approaching moment!