Rejsedagbog 1845

Curator: Welcome. Before us is a page from "Rejsedagbog," or "Travel Journal," dating back to 1845, by Johan Thomas Lundbye. It’s primarily a drawing executed with paper, textiles, and what appears to be some form of ink, preserved at the SMK, the National Gallery of Denmark. Editor: My first thought? Intimacy. It feels incredibly personal, like stumbling upon someone’s innermost thoughts whispered onto a page. The script cascades and flows and yet the very fact that it's in a bound volume makes me feel restricted as well. What can we make of this artistic juxtaposition of boundless creative possibility curtailed by confinement to this journal? Curator: The "Travel Journal" format certainly invites that kind of reflection. These weren’t created as finished artworks intended for public display but as more immediate records. These were visual and textual jottings that captured his encounters, ideas, and emotions in response to the world around him. In the age before widespread photography, notebooks and journals were the portable vessels where artistic capture could take shape at will. Editor: It’s so revealing to see an artist’s process laid bare. Here, free from the pressure of a grand statement, Lundbye seems to be sketching out little philosophical thoughts on this travel journal, offering us an honest glimpse into his intellectual journey. Curator: Absolutely. Lundbye, situated firmly within the Romantic movement, sought to connect the natural world and inner emotional experience. A record such as this reveals just how entwined his observations and emotions were. He wasn’t merely recording landscapes, but transcribing the sensations and thoughts they provoked within him. The page is also replete with reflections and meditations—you almost expect to see pressed flowers slipped within the pages. Editor: I get the distinct impression that there is another whole story to this that resides in the unreadable. Not because the artistry is vague but quite the contrary, the page is so filled that its very fullness seems to indicate how rich and complex his memories and artistic production were, too. Curator: I completely agree. In closing, it's that palpable sense of lived experience, captured fleetingly yet preserved so vividly, that continues to draw me back to this particular piece from Johan Thomas Lundbye. Editor: Indeed. And for me, it’s a quiet reminder that every artist has a whole, fully textured life that they necessarily choose which bits to allow to suffuse their final work. Here we are privy to something a bit less sanded down and a bit closer to the grain.