Rejsedagbog 1846

Curator: Welcome. We are standing before a page from Johan Thomas Lundbye's "Rejsedagbog," or Travel Journal, created in 1846. It's a drawing on paper, housed at the SMK, the National Gallery of Denmark. Editor: My first impression is… intimate. A whispered confidence captured in ink. It's just a fragment, yet it feels heavy with unseen thoughts. Curator: Precisely. Lundbye, a key figure in Danish Romanticism, used these journals not just for travelogues, but also as personal reflections, philosophical musings, and raw emotional expressions. Notice the density of the handwriting. Editor: Yes, a cascade of tight script. The letters themselves feel like tiny monuments crammed onto the page. The controlled hand perhaps suggesting restraint. But the sheer volume! It's overwhelming. Curator: The romantic spirit, wouldn’t you say? He wasn't merely recording facts; he was channeling feeling, processing experience through the act of writing and sketching. Look closer, and you may recognise the landmarks like the columns which reference Pompeii. Editor: I see how classical forms of reference seep in even among daily entries. The act of the journey itself transforms. Travel as self discovery, as something that has an impact on identity. Even simple script becomes an attempt to embody grand human themes, history folding into personal experience... Curator: Indeed, these journals offer glimpses into Lundbye’s inner world as it was being shaped by his encounters with the external world. What remains today is a series of glimpses into another world, or another consciousness – Editor: A very self aware form of journaling which then reflects to us, in turn. We see his perspective as his inner monologue reveals itself to us through art. It’s quite the legacy!