A Lady Mounted on Her Favourite Horse 1897 - 1901

Editor: This is "A Lady Mounted on Her Favourite Horse," a bronze sculpture crafted between 1897 and 1901 by Anne Marie Carl Nielsen. It’s at the Statens Museum for Kunst. There’s something quite solid and grounded about this piece. The detail is striking, from the horse's musculature to the woman’s attire. What catches your eye most when you look at this sculpture? Curator: The immediate draw is the interplay between the labor of artistic production and the portrayal of leisure. Bronze casting was, and remains, an intensive industrial process. This contrasts directly with the image: an upper-class woman engaging in a recreational equestrian activity. Think about the hands that mined the ore, the workers who forged the metal. How does understanding those processes shift your perspective? Editor: It makes me consider the accessibility of art, or the things it depicts, versus the process to make art. Not everyone could afford riding lessons or even visit art galleries. Curator: Precisely. And Nielsen, as a female sculptor in a male-dominated field, undoubtedly navigated her own set of challenges in accessing the means of production. Her work prompts questions about who gets to create art, whose stories are told, and the materials used in art creation. The use of bronze itself signifies a certain level of wealth and access, both for the subject depicted and the artist herself. What assumptions might viewers at the time have made based on the medium alone? Editor: They probably would've seen it as a symbol of prestige and high status. It's fascinating how the materials and process add such layers of meaning. Curator: Exactly. We gain a fuller appreciation of the sculpture when we unpack its material origins, its production, and the social stratification it subtly reflects. Editor: This has really expanded my perspective on the layers within sculpture and how the physical materials intersect with societal messages.