"Hvad mest har interesseret mig" 1842 - 1845

Curator: This is a fascinating peek into the mind of Johan Thomas Lundbye. This drawing from 1842-1845, titled "Hvad mest har interesseret mig" or "What has interested me the most," lives here at the SMK, Statens Museum for Kunst. Crafted with pencil on paper, it offers a rare glimpse into Lundbye's personal musings. Editor: Whoa, that's a brain dump! An avalanche of handwritten thoughts tumbling across the page. I’m immediately struck by the sheer volume of text—it's less a drawing and more a stream-of-consciousness rendered in delicate pencil strokes. Does anyone know what any of it actually *means*? Curator: Well, it seems to be a travelogue of sorts, noting locations and impressions from a journey. We see place names like "Cölln" (Cologne), "Bonn", and even mentions of "Drachenfels". This snippet gives insight into what caught Lundbye's eye. Editor: So, it’s less grand landscape and more mundane reality? All of those amazing vistas and historical sites become just to-do lists, personal notes crammed together on a single page. Did he really label everything like he does? Curator: Perhaps, or perhaps that wasn't his ultimate intention! Think of sketchbooks from this time not as purely preparatory work for paintings, but rather as places for contemplation in themselves. A site for developing and evolving your thoughts, and also how to best portray your environment in new ways. Editor: I like that. The page itself almost becomes a landscape, with lines of text as meandering paths, observations being towering mountain ranges, and splatters like little bodies of water and dark forests! Each thought competes for the reader's interest. Looking at the top now, it all seems fairly tame compared to my initial impressions. Curator: Indeed. Understanding the historic use of these sketchbooks will hopefully broaden visitor appreciation. Lundbye isn't just documenting; he's actively filtering reality through his own subjective experience. Editor: Totally, and what remains offers not only information, but also a unique portal to his thinking process. I’d walk away thinking of sketchbooks with more reverence now, a living archive of an individual's exploration of the world!