Illustration til Steen Steensen Blicher, "Aften" (af: "Natten paa Jellingehøje") 1870 - 1877

This illustration to Steen Steensen Blicher’s poem "Aften", or “Evening”, is an anonymous work displayed at the SMK - Statens Museum for Kunst. The poem comes from Blicher’s larger work, "Natten paa Jellingehøje" or “The Night on the Jelling Mounds”. Blicher was writing during a period of intense national romanticism in Denmark. He wrote at a time when writers were mining the depths of local folklore and history to establish a sense of national identity. Blicher’s own personal life was marked by financial struggles and a sense of social alienation. The poem itself is a meditation on the past, seen from the historical Jelling Mounds. The illustration captures that romantic sensibility, but also hints at the darker, more melancholic undertones in Blicher’s work. The heavy sky, the imposing mounds, and the framing that evokes both heraldry and the domestic, all suggest a complex relationship to history and home. How does it feel to look back and to find both inspiration and a looming sense of loss?