Curatorial Narrative The anonymous artist’s “Joseph Benjamin Oakleaf” is an exemplary embodiment of the Art Nouveau style, its linear brushwork imbuing the composition with a sense of dynamism and tension. Executed in a stark black and white palette, the print relies on subtle gradations of tone to evoke a sense of atmospheric weight, drawing the viewer’s eye inexorably towards the central figure. The artist’s use of negative space serves to heighten the sense of spatial rhythm, creating a visual cadence that mirrors the rhythmic sweep of the subject’s architectural design. Enlarged to its specified scale of 44×61, the print’s chromatic structure assumes a heightened sense of drama, with the black lines and white fields coalescing into a visually potent whole. The flatness of the composition belies a deep spatiality, however, as the artist’s use of atmospheric perspective creates a convincing illusion of depth and recession. In a