Rejsedagbog. Milano 1846

This is a page from Johan Thomas Lundbye’s travel journal, created in 1846 during his travels through Milan. Its composition reveals an intimate, immediate quality, dominated by dense, handwritten text in Danish. The texture of the paper and the dark ink create a stark contrast, a visual echo of the artist’s fleeting impressions and reflections. The structure of the journal entry, with its unbroken flow of script, mirrors the continuous, unbroken nature of travel itself. Lundbye’s notes—observations, personal musings, and critiques of artworks—are presented without pause. The script challenges fixed, conventional forms of travelogue writing by mixing objective observations with personal reflection, blurring the lines between description and subjective experience. Lundbye creates a semiotic system, using his journal as a space to explore how cultural experiences destabilize or reaffirm one’s sense of self and artistic identity. Ultimately, the intimate scale and informal style emphasizes that meaning is found in the process, not just the final product. It encourages us to consider how personal, subjective experiences contribute to cultural and philosophical discourse.