Evening Landscape near Gentofte, North of Copenhagen 1764 - 1790

Editor: This is Erik Pauelsen’s, “Evening Landscape near Gentofte, North of Copenhagen”, likely created between 1764 and 1790. The watercolor painting has this lovely golden light and calming effect. How do you read a landscape like this one, with its clear social markers of both church and farm? Curator: What strikes me is precisely that positioning within a broader socio-political landscape. Pauelsen offers what seems to be an objective view, almost topographical, yet the setting sun imbues it with an idealized serenity. Think about how the painting operates within a system of patronage and how the artist is attempting to project not only an image but an idea of Danish society. Does it celebrate a particular social order, a growing sense of national identity, or perhaps a nostalgic yearning for simpler times? Editor: So you are saying that the idyllic atmosphere may obscure some complex relationship to its real political situation? Curator: Absolutely. What role did art play in constructing national identity during this period, especially in contrast to the rural population who probably wouldn’t have enjoyed the same lifestyle portrayed? And consider where it would have been displayed. Was it intended for private contemplation in an aristocratic home, or were these images more public? What narratives about Denmark are being offered for its viewers? Editor: I hadn't thought about it as nation-building! Seeing it as part of some political discourse completely reshapes how I look at it. It is interesting to see the painting operating as a piece of rhetoric. Curator: Exactly. Now it may provoke you to ask: whose vision of Denmark is this, and whose stories are excluded?