Landskab med mølle 1833

Martinus Rørbye made this landscape with a mill using graphite on paper. The image presents an idyllic scene, a rustic windmill set against the flat Danish landscape. Rørbye was working during the Danish Golden Age, a time when artists turned to local subjects and simple, rural life. In contrast to the grandiose history paintings that dominated earlier periods, we see a focus on the everyday. The windmill, of course, is not merely a picturesque motif; it is a symbol of Danish industry and self-sufficiency. The figure leaning against the mill gives a sense of human scale and labor, but there is no dirt, no sweat, nothing to offend the delicate sensibility of the polite classes. Understanding this artwork requires us to consider the socio-economic structures of 19th-century Denmark, the cultural values of the rising middle class, and the institutions that shaped artistic taste. In this case, a study of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts would reveal much about the context in which Rørbye worked and the expectations he sought to fulfill.