Figurstudie til maleriet af landsretssagfører Niels Thorup, siddende på et havebord 1941

Curator: This is a preliminary sketch by Edvard Weie, made in 1941. It is a study for a painting, and the title gives us the full story: "Figurstudie til maleriet af landsretssagfører Niels Thorup, siddende på et havebord," or, "Figure study for the painting of attorney Niels Thorup, sitting on a garden table." It's rendered in pencil. Editor: It feels more like a ghost of a portrait. There’s something so fleeting and vulnerable about the lightness of the lines, like it might fade away if you look at it too intently. I suppose that's inherent in the medium—a sketch is just a step on the way. Curator: That impression isn't entirely off. While on one level it is literally just a preliminary sketch, the quick, searching lines here tap into the symbolic weight of portraiture itself, in how we try to fix and grasp a life in image. A portrait of a man like this carries a kind of societal authority with it, the authority he had as an attorney. So you might feel like something’s slipping away. Editor: It almost feels like he's actively being erased by time as you look at it! It is odd, I see his figure rendered without much facial detail... a blank face makes you consider the figure's context much more, what he represents instead of who he *is.* That evokes melancholy and a kind of... universality, perhaps. Everyone fades, you know? Curator: Interesting observation. It gets us thinking about themes beyond mere representation. His social role is highlighted in the drawing, which acts as a kind of lens for that period, the artist and subject co-existing on a fragile foundation as World War II unfolds. Weie returned often to portraits to try and extract those societal reflections. It also asks us about memory, its distortions, how we preserve individuals and history. Editor: I keep being drawn to those scribbled lines behind him. It almost looks like static electricity radiating around his head, an undoing of any grounded portrayal. It brings out an energy I didn't expect! Despite the minimal presentation, it has depth, I am impressed. Curator: Yes, precisely! Those swirling lines inject the otherwise calm portrait with such vigor. That energy pulls it all together, both literally and conceptually. It’s a brilliant choice by Weie. It all contributes to how, after all this time, it still prompts this level of questioning.