Figurstudier 1831 - 1852

Editor: So, this is *Figurstudier* – Figure Studies – by Dankvart Dreyer, made sometime between 1831 and 1852, a pencil drawing now at the SMK. It feels very… tentative. Like a sketchbook page of fleeting ideas, or maybe an artist just warming up? What catches your eye about this drawing? Curator: Tentative is a good word! To me, it's like stumbling into someone's thought process. We see Dreyer grappling with form and composition, but more than that, I sense him reaching back, trying to recapture the monumental figures of antiquity, filtered through a 19th-century lens. Almost as if he’s saying: what could those giants say to us today? Look at the repetition: does that make you think he’s really searching for the correct form, not mechanically but thoughtfully? Editor: I hadn't thought about the connection to classical sculpture! I guess I was just focused on the loose quality of the drawing. But now I see the heroic postures. That face in the lower left, it looks unfinished, but has a distinct almost noble bearing. Curator: Absolutely! That unresolved quality is where the magic lies. He hasn’t pinned it down, meaning our imagination has room to breathe, to collaborate with the artist. You start thinking about where that profile belongs in his view of antiquity and its possible continuation today! Where did they come from and why are they caught in a sketchbook?! What might their relation to Dreyer even be?! The drawing seems to hint at stories waiting to be told…or dreamt! Editor: I like that idea, that the incompleteness allows us to engage more deeply. Before I saw it as a simple sketch but it makes you appreciate the role of the imagination… Curator: Precisely! It’s less about observation, perhaps, and more about a dance between seeing and dreaming. Art for art’s sake... or maybe dreams' sake!