Liden Gunver og Havmanden 1841

Edvard Lehmann created this print, "Liden Gunver og Havmanden," using engraving techniques to illustrate a Danish folk ballad. Lehmann, working in the 19th century, was deeply influenced by Romanticism and nationalism, movements that sought to define cultural identities through folklore and history. This artwork presents an intersection of gendered expectations and class anxieties within a supernatural narrative. We see a young woman, Gunver, in a domestic setting encountering the merman, a figure from the wild. Gunver, bound by societal expectations of purity and domesticity, meets a creature representing untamed natural forces. The merman's longing gaze could be interpreted as a yearning to bridge the gap between these contrasting worlds. The ballad, and Lehmann's print, evoke the societal fears around female virtue and the dangers lurking beyond the domestic sphere. But it also hints at a transgressive desire, a willingness to defy social norms, captured in the charged moment of their interaction. How does this artwork make you feel about the boundaries between our known worlds and the mysterious realms that lie just beyond reach?