Gadedekoration 1765 - 1865

Editor: So, here we have "Gadedekoration," a cityscape created sometime between 1765 and 1865 by Jens Petersen Lund. It’s a mixed media piece using drawing and watercolor, currently at the SMK. It's funny, it's a very ordered scene, quite neoclassical, but there’s also something very… quiet about it. I’m wondering, what catches your eye when you look at this work? Curator: Quiet, yes, precisely. It’s as though the buildings themselves are holding their breath. It evokes a sense of a stage set, doesn’t it? That theatrical calm. You see that bold perspective and classical architecture; it suggests grandeur but in this somewhat subdued palette. Imagine the artist standing there, capturing this nascent cityscape – perhaps Copenhagen itself – attempting to immortalize a perfect, if idealized, version of urban life. Almost as if sketching from memory of grandeur passed, more than what was actually present. What do you make of that neoclassical temple-like building smack-dab in the middle? A statement, wouldn't you say? Editor: Absolutely, a statement! Like a symbol of aspirations, of bringing classical ideals into everyday life? But I keep thinking about those quiet streets – they feel almost deserted. Curator: Aspirational, exactly! These neo-classical visions often present this tension: grand architectural statements set against the realities of an evolving city. This supposed street decoration seems a little devoid of actual… people and thus actual life. Which perhaps tells us more of the mindset they wished to propagate than the material facts on ground? Editor: I guess you’re right. I was so caught up in the 'quiet' that I forgot that it's also devoid of any traces of living and hence feels more like a memory than like the pulse of existence. Food for thought... Curator: And that’s the beauty of it, isn't it? The artist capturing a specific kind of potential, a staged perfection – which we can read critically across the centuries. Makes one think what someone viewing present works will consider of our current world a hundred years hence!