Rejsedagbog 1845

Curator: So, tell me what strikes you first about this image? Editor: This is Rejsedagbog, or "Travel Journal," created by Johan Thomas Lundbye in 1845. It’s a drawing on paper housed at the Statens Museum for Kunst. Looking at this open page of handwritten text… well, it feels very intimate, like a private thought captured in ink. How do you interpret this work? Curator: Intimacy is key. I imagine Lundbye sitting by a window, jotting down observations and personal reflections during his travels. The act of writing itself, the pressure of the quill on paper, that’s all part of the romantic spirit. See how the script is dense in places, then opens into looser lines? To me, that echoes the shifting rhythms of thoughts, sometimes rushing, sometimes lingering. Editor: I noticed that too. It’s so unlike a typed journal; each word carries the weight of his hand and presence. The use of antiquated Danish feels very old, but familiar in its own way. How much do you think the legibility (or illegibility) affects our reading of the piece? Curator: It's a barrier, yet a beautiful one. Not understanding every word pulls you away from concrete meaning. We start to focus on form and feel. The darker inks draw you in and then recede… It pushes us from objective reading into more of an atmospheric, emotional experience of his journey. Editor: That makes so much sense. I initially saw it as just text, but now I am seeing it more as this textured, visual object imbued with a sense of the artist’s own presence and memory. Curator: Exactly! Isn’t it wonderful how one little shift in perspective can transform the whole experience?