Studier af fanger fra Forbedringshuset 1833

Martinus Rørbye created this sketch of prisoners from the house of correction with pen and watercolor. The figures are arranged in a line, each one isolated and bearing their distinct burdens. Note the woman on the left, Gjele Elizabeth Hansdatter. Her apron, usually a symbol of domesticity and care, here becomes a marker of her confinement and perhaps forced labor. This symbol resonates with images of enslaved people from antiquity to modern times, where the tools of labor become emblems of subjugation. The old man Johan Lieberg leaning on a stick, evokes the classical motif of the wise old man, but here inverted, suggesting frailty and moral collapse. Similarly, the young men, Frederik Mülh and Ole Olsen, stripped of individuality, foreshadow images of soldiers marching off to war, their youth and potential swallowed by the machinery of the state. These symbols are never fixed. They evolve, resurface, and transform across time, reflecting our collective anxieties and hopes.