Valdemar den Store på rejsen til mødet med Fr. Barbarossa 1831

Curator: Here we have J.L. Lund’s 1831 drawing, "Valdemar den Store på rejsen til mødet med Fr. Barbarossa," which translates to Valdemar the Great on his journey to meet Frederick Barbarossa. It’s currently held at the SMK, Statens Museum for Kunst. Editor: My goodness, the overall feeling is like a whisper of a memory. So delicate! The sepia tones give it an old-world charm, like a half-forgotten dream, but one with an underlying solemnity. I'm curious what it's made of? Curator: The drawing is primarily executed in sepia ink, which lends itself beautifully to this style of academic art. As the title indicates, this drawing pictures Valdemar the Great during his historical journey to meet Frederick Barbarossa. The subject is less the grand meeting itself and more the travel. Editor: I see it. What really strikes me are the almost frantic details surrounding Valdemar on his horse. Look at the crowd; Lund depicts a whole host of characters, many blurred, seemingly throwing themselves at Valdemar. Is he meant to look sad? Curator: Interesting point. There’s an almost manufactured quality to this enthusiastic greeting of Valdemar. Lund very deliberately chose the medium of drawing rather than oils for what is a very large image—29.5 by 26.2 centimeters. A practical method of image making or the more 'delicate' method better suited to capture history? Editor: Ah, so it is! It gives the whole scene an impermanent feel, like a charcoal rubbing of history itself. The paper looks handmade, probably from cotton or linen rag... I wonder who actually made this paper, and how Lund may have sourced such materials. That town way up in the back— Curator: Oh, you are right, it does resemble a medieval town on a very tall and very steep hilltop! Almost unreachable from here, yet they continue onward. The piece evokes nostalgia. The choice of figures, clothing, even their faces feels deliberately classic. I love the figure near the edge of the drawing; the stooped character in rags is nearly as captivating as Valdemar. Editor: The material echoes a broader socio-political environment. Lund romanticizes, or maybe idealizes, a past rooted in production, right down to the rag paper he draws on. And how can we ignore the medium's inherent relationship with sketch culture? The way the materiality reinforces themes of fleeting encounters... History as fragments, indeed! Curator: Yes, there's so much to take away from Lund's illustration, so seemingly basic in execution yet rich in implied textures and social commentary. Editor: It almost calls us to think of history in less monumental terms and instead as a story woven by individual encounters, materials and memories.