Zoologen, professor Japetus Steenstrup 1866

Editor: So here we have H.W. Bissen's bronze sculpture from 1866, a portrait of Japetus Steenstrup, the zoologist. The way the light catches his brow gives him such a knowing expression; it’s almost unsettling. What do you make of it? Curator: Unsettling, yes, perhaps because it freezes Steenstrup in time, this brilliant mind that wrestled with the origin of species and left us all scratching our heads, just a little bit. I see a man caught between worlds, still anchored in neoclassicism – that stern, ordered structure – but with a spark in his eye hinting at the swirling currents of realism to come. It’s as if Bissen sensed the earth moving under Steenstrup's feet, or perhaps his own! Does the almost imperceptible tilt of the head communicate some insight to you? Editor: The tilt! I hadn't consciously registered it, but it’s there, isn't it? Almost a question mark embodied in bronze. Curator: Exactly! And that bronze – so solid, so seemingly immutable. Don't you think Bissen may have found it a poignant counterpoint to the fluid ideas Steenstrup championed, a permanent pose capturing such transitory, shape-shifting thoughts? Maybe that hint of irony adds to the "unsettling" feeling you noticed. Editor: That’s such a fresh take, contrasting permanence and shifting ideas. It encourages me to ponder who we immortalize and what exactly we’re trying to hold still. Curator: Me too! It shows how art invites dialogue – not just with the artist, but with ourselves and with history itself. Each portrait really is an invitation, or a dare!