Dammen ved Vogneserup 1848 - 1849

P.C. Skovgaard made this drawing, Dammen ved Vogneserup, with pen and grey ink. It depicts a dam surrounded by trees and foliage. Skovgaard was a central figure in the Danish Golden Age, a period of intense national romanticism. Artists turned to the local landscape for motifs rather than grand historical or mythological scenes. This drawing reflects that turn. Skovgaard’s focus on the Danish landscape speaks to a specific cultural and political context: Denmark's search for national identity. After the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark had lost Norway and was in search of something to unify the remaining kingdom. What might seem like a straightforward depiction of nature is, in fact, a potent assertion of national belonging. Historians of art use estate papers, travel journals, and political pamphlets to understand how artists like Skovgaard participated in the construction of Danish identity.