Rejsedagbog 1845

Editor: This is "Rejsedagbog," or "Travel Journal," created in 1845 by Johan Thomas Lundbye. It’s a drawing on paper with pen. Looking at these pages, covered in dense handwriting, it feels like a very intimate glimpse into the artist’s world, almost secretive. What do you see in this work? Curator: This is a wonderful object to consider from an iconographic perspective. Don’t you think it’s fascinating how handwriting itself becomes an image, a visual symbol of personality and lived experience? Lundbye isn't simply recording information, but imprinting his very being onto the page. It is, in essence, a coded cultural artifact. Editor: Coded, how so? Curator: Think about the act of journaling in the 19th century. It was a practice deeply embedded in Romanticism. For the Romantics, personal experience and emotion were paramount. These journals, then, weren't just diaries, they were attempts to capture and preserve fleeting moments of inspiration, reflection, and observation. This explains why his penmanship is flourished and stylised. Note the cultural memory contained in his style. Editor: So the way he writes and presents the words becomes as important as the words themselves? Almost like a performance of self? Curator: Precisely! Consider also that most viewers likely cannot read the specific language; thus, the “meaning” is less literal and more about the evocation of a past sensibility. And consider, how does seeing this page today influence *our* understanding of Romanticism? Do our modern sensibilities find this quaint or still relevant? Editor: That makes me think about how we construct identity today through social media…perhaps these journals are distant relatives to our online profiles? Thank you for shedding light on it! Curator: My pleasure! Every image carries a multitude of possible readings and interpretations depending on where we stand in culture and history.