Historikeren, professor C.F. Allen 1860

Curator: Let's turn our attention to this marble bust, a portrait of the historian Professor C.F. Allen created in 1860 by H.W. Bissen, currently residing here at the SMK. What's your initial feeling about this one? Editor: I'm struck by its cool austerity. Marble has this inherent aloofness, and coupled with the professor’s rather stern expression, it feels almost…clinical. I imagine the hand of the artist toiling away at such hard material to realize such refined form. Curator: Yes, it's very Neoclassical, isn't it? But then Bissen was deeply influenced by Thorvaldsen, a master of that very style. I wonder about the relationship. What was the quarry like? Did Bissen participate himself in the procurement? Marble holds history too. Editor: Indeed, one imagines the journey of this marble, ripped from the earth, shipped across the sea, the sheer physical labor involved in revealing this likeness from such a dense block. It contrasts sharply with the refined intellectual the sculpture represents. Curator: Exactly! And Allen, of course, a towering figure in Danish history. He shaped our understanding of the past through his writings. I look at the piece and get such a sense of serious intent – the weight of scholarship etched into stone. The furrow in his brow is intense. Almost… a challenge. Editor: It's the kind of face you expect to see judging a historical debate! Though, I can't help but wonder, too, about the cost of such portraiture. Who had access to such commissions? Who was excluded? What voices are forever lost from the historical record? It provokes thoughts beyond aesthetics. Curator: Excellent points. The context is paramount. Looking again at the sculpture's lines, the strong jawline against the curls framing the face... There’s an inherent drama playing with marble stillness that feels very Romantic, if you agree. Editor: I agree, this dance between realism and the inherent coldness of marble reminds us how much human labor has been and continues to be invested in the arts, a tradition we tend to forget. Thank you.