"Lillian Dorset" 1937

Curator: This is "Lillian Dorset," a charcoal drawing made by Christian Kongstad Petersen in 1937, currently held at the SMK, Statens Museum for Kunst. What's your initial take on it? Editor: It feels like looking into the depths of a stormy night. There's a figure, maybe, but swallowed up in shadows and frantic scribbles. Like a ghost struggling to materialize. Curator: Petersen really captures that sense of struggle, doesn't he? He lays down this dense network of charcoal, almost violently at times, but still manages to suggest form and presence. I'm struck by how the light, or the absence of it, defines the subject. There’s a figure, but the essence is almost abstract. Editor: The way he uses charcoal is really compelling. It’s not just about depicting something, but almost feeling the anxiety in the strokes. Do you get that too? That sense of internal turmoil? It seems like the darkness might win. Is the title ironic, as a way of making it sound proper, because it’s just completely dark to me. Curator: Perhaps it’s a study in contrast. I agree about the darkness – it’s overwhelming, but I also think the small areas of white – especially around the figure's face – they're key. They don't quite offer hope, but rather moments of intense visibility within that gloom. But more fundamentally, I think the drawing also suggests that something exists outside what we can physically grasp in any absolute kind of way. So it hints at reality or even dreams – always escaping into shadows, or just there in small strokes of existence, like little explosions. I guess there's a certain mystery surrounding the choice of medium. The stark contrasts feel so purposeful. It forces you to ask whether the artist thought charcoal best conveys this… instability? Editor: I find it deeply melancholic. It’s like he is drawing shadows and trying to give those the weight of a soul or personality. It’s an impressive act, when you come to think about it, especially that there are no true defined boundaries here, in terms of line. We almost piece together her as this whole being, from the minimal hints, and through darkness. It has made me want to dwell on my shadow too. Curator: I love how this single drawing throws us into all of this contemplation, from pure form and composition to the depths of our interiority, to our own shadow side!