Udkast til Hr. Ebbes Døtre 1898 - 1899

Editor: So, here we have Agnes Slott-Møller's "Draft for Mr. Ebbe's Daughters," created around 1898-99. It's a coloured-pencil drawing, a preparatory work of sorts, and I find it strangely haunting. The figures are so stylized and the faces blank. What do you make of this piece? Curator: Haunting is a great word for it. The lack of facial features is quite striking, isn’t it? It almost abstracts them from the individual to archetypes. Consider how dress becomes their identity, how symbolic patterns on their cloaks hint at lineage and cultural roles, invoking memory through textiles. Have you considered what might the crowns signify in connection to the absence of other individuating features? Editor: That’s interesting! I hadn’t thought about the dress and crowns as symbolic identifiers in place of faces. I just thought the lack of facial features seemed unfinished. The patterns do remind me of early medieval art, almost like tapestry designs. Curator: Precisely! Slott-Møller is referencing the Northern Renaissance and even older visual vocabularies. These choices, while referencing the past, place the figures within a historical current and enduring narrative. What sort of narrative could you imagine? Editor: A story about legacy or lineage, maybe? Something about the weight of history. Curator: The chandeliers contribute to a sense of formality and staged drama, reminiscent of theatrical backdrops, perhaps even hinting at a play with themes of lineage. Editor: I see that now. I initially thought they looked a bit awkward, just floating there. Curator: The chandeliers also represent domestic space; it's quite clever the way the artist has collapsed together dynastic aspirations, gender roles, and stagecraft. Editor: It’s fascinating how Slott-Møller uses historical references to create this timeless yet very specific impression of these figures. It almost feels like she's summoning them from history. Curator: And that is what images do—they summon, they preserve, and they participate in shaping how we remember the past and relate to it now. A sketch allows the creative process to become so explicit. Thank you for observing.