Sketch for unperformed monument to three Danish Polar Explorers 1910 - 1911

Niels Hansen Jacobsen made this rough bronze sketch for a monument to three Danish Polar explorers, we don't know when. It feels like clay was pushed, prodded, and piled to find the form. The sculpture emerges, shifting from rock to human form. It's all very touchy-feely. I imagine Jacobsen in the studio, his hands covered in clay, wrestling with the subject, trying to find the balance between the landscape and the men. I wonder what he was thinking about. Maybe he was contemplating their bravery, their isolation, their connection to the unknown. In the end, maybe he wanted the explorers and the landscape to be forever intertwined, and the sculpture to be a testament to the human spirit's ability to endure and to explore. It reminds me of Rodin, with its raw emotion. Artists are always in conversation, after all, inspiring each other across time. Painting and sculpture are a form of embodied expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty. There's so much room for interpretation.