Træer og bladstudier 1749 - 1790

Curator: Welcome. We’re standing before “Trees and Leaf Studies,” a drawing rendered between 1749 and 1790 by Erik Pauelsen, presently held at the Statens Museum for Kunst. The work is pencil and pastel on paper. Editor: It's quite serene, isn't it? Like a whisper of a forest. I love the airy quality, almost unfinished in places, giving the trees a sort of ephemeral, dreamlike presence. It feels incredibly…gentle. Curator: Pauelsen's sketches are an exercise in close observation, rooted in the Enlightenment’s empirical emphasis on understanding the natural world through direct experience. Plein-air drawing was a key tool for scientific documentation and artistic study. Consider, the power structures inherent in accessing and portraying landscape. Who gets to define "nature" and for what purposes? Editor: Oh, absolutely. I hadn't thought of it that way immediately, I was too caught up in the light, but that makes total sense. These aren’t just trees; they're a statement of ownership, almost. Still, it makes me want to grab my sketchbook and just sit beneath one of those elegant birches for hours! I am seduced by the idea that these studies were produced en plein air. Curator: Precisely. This gets to the crux of art historical interpretation. The medium of pastel, combined with the pencil under-drawing, indicates the evolving intersection of science, aesthetics, and social status embedded within landscape art of this era. Consider also, that even then, discussions surrounding landscape and ownership involved gendered concepts about both artistic process and value. Editor: Wow. To think that something that feels so unassuming could be such a layered reflection of power… Now I feel almost guilty for wanting to romanticize it. It makes the lightness I initially perceived more complex, less innocent. Like a gilded cage or a deceptively placid pond. Curator: It's that very tension which makes it such a compelling work, allowing one to appreciate the detail while grappling with how representation intersects with broader social realities. Editor: I'll never look at a tree the same way again! This has given me such food for thought. Thank you!