Rejsedagbog 1845

This is a page from Johan Thomas Lundbye’s travel journal. Executed in 1845, its overall visual impact is one of dense inscription, where the texture of the paper is almost overwhelmed by the regularity of the handwritten script. The lines march across the page, creating a layered surface. Lundbye's use of language becomes a structural element, a building block in the composition, similar to how an abstract painter might use color or shape. This challenges our traditional notions of what a landscape painting should be. There’s a tension between the act of writing and the act of seeing, where the written word becomes the medium through which Lundbye experiences and processes the world around him. It is an intersection of language and space, where the written word aims to capture the intangible essence of a place. Ultimately, this journal entry functions as a kind of mapping—a cognitive cartography that destabilizes the conventional boundaries between travelogue and visual art, and invites us to consider how we construct and mediate our experiences of the world.