Illustration til digt af H. V. Kaalund 1871

This illustration for a poem by H. V. Kaalund was made by F. Hendriksen, likely in Denmark, given its location in the Statens Museum for Kunst. Looking at the image we see a deer standing alert while its fawn lies in the grass, with a thicket of trees behind them. In the background are two people. One wonders what it was about Kaalund's poem that Hendriksen chose to illustrate in this way. Was the poem about the experience of nature? About a family? About a chance meeting? Whatever the poem was about, Hendriksen's choice to illustrate it with a vignette of the natural world evokes the 19th-century Danish interest in understanding and celebrating local folk culture and national identity. This interest drove a great deal of artistic production at the time, and museums like the Statens Museum for Kunst were founded to collect and display works which would exemplify Danish culture and character. To understand the significance of this illustration in its own time, it would be important to read Kaalund's poem and study the cultural history of 19th-century Denmark.