Gammel skægget mand med sort kalot 1898

Frans Schwartz made this print of an old, bearded man wearing a black cap. The work is currently held at the SMK - Statens Museum for Kunst. Made in Denmark at the turn of the 20th century, this image speaks to a rising interest in representing the common person. We can see this interest echoed in contemporaneous literature and photography. Note the man’s downcast gaze and the artist’s close attention to the details of his aged face. Is Schwartz trying to ennoble the working class? Or is he simply interested in accurately portraying an individual, regardless of social standing? Schwartz was, himself, a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Investigating the records of that institution might shed light on the artistic values he would have imparted to his students. The meaning of this image, then, is not just in what we see, but in the broader history of artistic institutions and social change.