En købstadsgade 1840 - 1905

Pietro Kobke Krohn made this etching of a Danish market town street, sometime around the late 19th century. The buildings are solid, the street is busy with people, and the sky above suggests a changeable northern climate. Consider for a moment the cultural position of Denmark at this time. It was a small nation between larger, more powerful neighbours, attempting to consolidate its own distinct identity in the face of powerful currents of pan-Germanic and pan-Scandinavian nationalism. The solid burghers of Krohn’s streetscape, going about their daily business, can be understood as a representation of idealised Danish values, in which family life, social order and economic exchange are given a high cultural value. This is the political work that art often performs. For the historian of art, pictures like this can be understood more fully through examination of popular journals, political pamphlets, and sociological studies of the period. The meaning of art is always contingent on social context.