ARE OPEN WINDOWS ALWAYS ROMANTIC?

ARE OPEN WINDOWS ALWAYS ROMANTIC? My response to the paintings and drawings in the open window exhibit is more complicated than a simple conclusion that they are Romantic. I contrast them with paintings of figures in a landscape, in which the landscape opens up behind the figures in an expanse of land and sky filling the edges of the painting. In the open window paintings, the room—for me—dominates. Even in the few paintings where the open window takes up a lot of the surface of the painting, the edges of the room seem to confine the view. The view of the distance may be Romantic, but the painting or drawing is also about the space in the closed room.