Stormen 1845

This is Adolph Kittendorff's "The Storm", a print of unknown date, held at the Statens Museum for Kunst. The image depicts a child running in a storm, his hat flying off his head. This artwork offers a glimpse into the social and cultural values of 19th-century Denmark. In this period, art often served to reinforce national identity and cultural norms. Here, the image invokes the experience of rural life, which was undergoing dramatic changes through industrialization. Kittendorff, working within established artistic institutions, would have been aware of the expected roles for artists at the time. By depicting a child in a moment of vulnerability against the elements, does he challenge the emerging social order, or reinforce traditional values of resilience and connection to nature? To fully understand this print, we need to look at the social context of its creation, examining how art institutions shaped its production and reception, and considering how audiences of the time might have interpreted its message.