Robert Frank, Untitled, gelatin silver print, 1958, 22 × 34.3 cm, Johnson Museum of Art. 

Steeped in the soft glow of a dream, a whimsical scene unfolds as it evokes poignant emotions of bittersweet nostalgia and childhood memories. The main figures in this print are a mother with four children running around her, holding sparklers. Their bare feet leave delicate imprints littered across the sand, the texture evidence of their uninhibited movement and delight. Around them, the ocean rests in calm stillness, as if pausing to witness this intimate familial moment. The slightly blurred lines create an aged effect and allude to the uncertain retrospective element of a memory. Furthermore, the grainy quality and dim lighting suggest that the moment is being re-lived rather than witnessed. The eye is drawn to bright white sparklers in each child’s hand and the mother who lovingly walks towards them. Here, the ocean is cast as a maternal womb, and this print reinforces that maternity through its arrangement of figures. The woman symbolizes the emotional landscape of motherhood as watchful and silently powerful. Much like Johan Christian Dahl’s Mother and Child, where maternal protection is also cast, Robert Frank’s image reveals this protectiveness. The setting, a tranquil but transient space, contrasts the fleetingness of childhood with the steadiness of her presence. Frank's works are often characterized by capturing people in the throes of daily life. As Frank explained, “There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment". 

Davies’ most distinctive works are the dreamlike, fantasy visions of female nudes standing in landscapes. These subjects possess a distinctly classical flavor and have literary and mythological allusions. His works have a strong affinity with symbolism, often compared to French artists. In Sea Maidens, their bodies move like water, limbs interwoven and hair flowing. These feminine forms merge seamlessly as the women drift together along the beach. Their buoyant movements echo the waves behind them, implying a deep, intuitive bond between them and the natural world. These feminine figures resemble sirens or sea nymphs, symbols of sensuality and transformation. The maidens’ forms resist rigid outlines, which expresses the fluid and expansive nature of feminine identity. The women are free of clothing and other constraints as they dance together in a state of collective joy and physical liberation. The etching is in black and white and emphasizes their movement and gestures. The use of delicate, textured paper, worn and ridge-like, enhances the ethereal, timeless atmosphere of the scene. Rendered in high-contrast black and white, the lack of color focuses attention on form. Like Caspar David Friedrich’s Moonrise over the Sea, Sea Maidens explores the intimate union between women and nature. 

Arthur B. Davies, Sea Maidens, 1924, Soft-ground etching and aquatint, 19.8 x 29.8 cm, in the Johnson Museum of Art. 

Friedrich invites viewers into a shared act of contemplation, aligning us with the seated figures who gaze out toward the rising moon. By distilling a moment of emotional resonance between humans and the natural world, he reveals how mystery, beauty, and solitude can be profound sources of meaning. This feeling transcends gendered expectations, embodied by both the male and female figures. The moment is neither feminine nor masculine, but is instead simply human. 

A closer look at Moonrise. All three figures watch the moon rise, and the women hold each other while the man sits beside them.

A closer look at Mother and Child. The anchor beside them points toward the moon, the painting's quiet source of hope.

Dahl identified the woman and child waiting for the fisherman's return as his family. This context cements the emotions that arise from viewing the painting: the discomfort from the darkness, the hope that the boat will beat the drifting clouds, and the relief at seeing how close it is to the shore. Dahl explores the catharsis of survival in the face of grief, an element close to his own life, having lost two of his children in the year before this work’s completion and his wife three years before. This exploration again crosses gender norms, embodied by both his creation of an idyllic scene and the figures' hope.

The couple does not appear as two individuals, but rather as a unified presence, sharing a moment of contemplation for the beautiful harbor. Their stillness suggests no desire for anything beyond aesthetic appreciation. The moonlight that glides over the sea also washes across their bodies, visually linking them to the natural world. This detail affirms their interconnectedness not only with each other but with nature itself. As in other Romantic works, the expression of quiet intimacy, wonder, and emotional connection transcends gendered roles, allowing a deeply human experience to emerge.

A closer look at Ramsgate. The nets' layering of the lines pushes them against each other, leaving inconsistent negative space and creating an organic form. 

Anthony Friedkin's photography transforms the substance of water, giving it a form, density, and an incomparable smoothness. The grain of the photograph here particularly seems to give the water an unprecedented substance. The photograph’s composition disrupts the horizontality of the landscape format and the sea. Everything is elevated in this shot, which freezes the power of water and its weightless tension. The sun-drenched foam seems unreal, as if freezing the movement had given it a new appearance, completely unattainable in real life. Rays of sunlight and foam escape toward the top of the photograph to ward off the flatness of the world. Here, photography detaches itself from reality to gain autonomy and offers us a new perspective: water is a known but mysterious substance.

Joseph Mallord William Turner, War. The Exile and the Rock Limpet, 1842, Oil on Canvas, 103 × 102.5 × 11.2 cm, Tate Britain

Ivan Aivazovsky, The Ninth Wave, 1850, Oil on Canvas, 221 cm × 332 cm, State Russian Museum