Plantestudier 1840s

Curator: It feels like a quiet whisper, doesn't it? A secret language of leaves rendered in soft pencil strokes. Editor: This is "Plant Studies," a pencil drawing made in the 1840s by the Danish artist Dankvart Dreyer. It resides in the collection of the SMK, the National Gallery of Denmark. Curator: The sparseness is striking. It reminds me of those half-formed images from childhood, those that emerge from the fog of dreams. The pencil barely seems to touch the paper, evoking an airy feeling. Editor: Dreyer was working in the Romantic era. I think it’s quite interesting that, even in something that appears a simple nature study, we can sense a growing shift toward observation of nature, typical in 19th century art, instead of using landscape as allegorical stage, as often occurred before. Curator: Exactly. These “Plant Studies” feel utterly grounded in reality. These quick lines might signal the beginning of new attention given to scientific and analytic thought. Think how Carl Linnaeus' work to give all living organisms a universally accepted name had lasting impacts, how these shifts ripple through art as well as other cultural phenomena. I am not surprised Dreyer was capturing images like this. Editor: I think it makes us, as viewers, think about how the botanists classify and attempt to truly understand our environment. Also I am very curious what inspired it to be stored at the museum today. In this way, you know, art has to live in a culture, and what meaning it creates there has so much power in art’s legacy. Curator: I love how the light seems to emanate from within the leaves themselves, each carefully sketched shape alive with energy, and as if breathing on the paper in a quiet and profound harmony. I'm still struck by that light, and the feelings it elicits are intense! Editor: Agreed! A seemingly simple drawing but also a record and repository of the important ideas, philosophies and approaches that underpin 19th-century scientific and cultural shifts. Thank you for making me appreciate this small pencil image in new, grand ways.