[Robin Joyce] I'm Dr. Robin Joyce, and I am one of two curators along with Dr. Joanna Karlgaard, of Deconstructing Nature: Environmental Transformation in the Lucas Collection. This show is part of a museum-wide series of exhibitions, exploring artists’ relationship to the environment called Turn Again To the Earth. The works on this title wall are more than just plant studies. They have personality, almost. If you look at the watercolor, by an artist named Karl Bodmer, you have two plant studies. On the right-hand side, you have morning glory, and on the left-hand side you have digitalis or foxglove. And these are two plants that actually come from different sides of the world. That particular species of morning glory is native to Mexico and Central America and the Southwest, while the foxglove is native to Europe and the Mediterranean. So the fact that both of these are on one sheet together really does tell you that people have been moving and they've been bringing the plants with them.  It's one of my favorite things about this study that you see traces of a whole history of human movement and of ecological movement. The longer you look at it, the more just really gorgeous details, delicate color; you get the sense that Bodmer spent a long time with these plants and lovingly rendering them. And you can see he's actually snuck his signature into the bottom of the morning glory on the right hand side, as kind of part of the plant life. [Joanna Karlgaard] I am Dr. Joanna Karlgaard. I love the smallest work on this wall, the etching by Bléry of the tree branches. It's very much like a portrait of a specific tree. If you look closely, you can see this beautiful interplay between light and shadow and the depiction of the bark and the leaves. Many of the artists working at the Forest of Fontainebleau just outside of Paris were also advocating for its preservation. Pine trees were being planted to harvest the wood for lumber, and artists felt like these pine trees were obscuring their view of these amazing, beautiful oak trees. [Robin Joyce] The works in this exhibition really invite you to slow down and spend time with them. We have magnifying glasses that you are encouraged to use to take in all of the beautiful, intricate details. The exhibition is in this one gallery, and it's organized by different kinds of environment. So we have a section on the forest, and a section on the desert. Sections on the city, on the fields, and on artists’ labor in their own studios is its own kind of artistic environment. [Joanna Karlgaard] We're not only seeing images of the environment, but we're also learning about humans' interactions with the environment. The exhibition was a collaborative effort and in this audio guide, you'll hear many different points of view. And we encourage you to bring your own experiences to these 19th-century works of art.

The introductory wall for Deconstructing Nature displays three works on paper, including two etchings and a watercolor. The smallest print, which measures approximately four inches high by seven inches wide, is positioned at the top left of the grouping and shows a detailed, black-and-white image of an oak tree’s branches. A watercolor, in the lower left, measures approximately 11 inches high and eight inches wide and shows an intricately detailed and subtly colored representation of digitalis and morning glory plants. The largest print, which measures approximately 21 inches high by 15 inches wide, is centered to the right of the other two and shows a variety of tropical plants in black and white. Together, they help to introduce themes of landscape and international exchange central to the exhibition.