Trompette de dragons 1890

Curator: Ah, here we are in front of "Trompette de dragons," created in 1890 by John-Lewis Brown. What springs to mind? Editor: Immediately? Laborious. Look at the textures, the very visible hand of the artist—not trying to hide the process, but reveling in it. And that horse… looks tired, almost slumped under the weight. Curator: I see what you mean about labor. It's interesting you mention the weight. I find it captures something ethereal, almost a ghost from a past conflict. The artist uses romanticism, but there's a delicate softness there too. Editor: Well, it IS a print, likely lithography given the date and softness you mention. Let's not forget the impact of reproducible images—how prints democratized art. Also consider that brown paper; cheap, functional, readily available. These materials and production tell us much about who this artwork was *for*. Curator: I do wonder, though, if we lose something when we only consider the mechanics. I can get lost in the plume of that red helmet, picturing this trumpeter signaling into some distant landscape. What must that feel like to send music ahead of danger? Editor: What feelings the artist projects are of secondary importance, wouldn't you say, to how readily it was produced for a consuming public? The romance of war? Hardly... what was the economic status of those who could procure images such as this, I wonder. Curator: Maybe. It seems clear that this artwork is a combination of accessible art AND personal statement; and that makes the combination beautiful in itself. Editor: It seems apt we come to such different readings ourselves, as it would surely been recieved. Art lives differently within history. Thanks for that.