Frederiksberg Garden. In the background the statue of Frederik VI and the entrance gates 1891

Fridolin Johansen created this oil on canvas painting, Frederiksberg Garden, to depict a slice of Copenhagen in the late 19th or early 20th century. Frederiksberg Garden was originally designed as a royal pleasure garden, but by the time Johansen painted this scene, it had opened to the public. The artist captures the garden's formal layout, with its straight avenues of trees leading to a statue of Frederik VI. The painting subtly evokes the social changes of the time, reflecting a shift from private royal space to public park. As art historians, we use sources like city archives, garden plans, and social histories to reconstruct the world in which Johansen lived and painted, allowing us to consider the politics of imagery and understand art as something contingent on social context.