Daniel i løvekulen 1919

Joakim Skovgaard made this drawing of Daniel in the Lion's Den with ink on paper. Look at how Skovgaard has built up the image, using energetic hatching. There is a real urgency to the mark-making, almost as if he is trying to capture a vision before it disappears! I can imagine him hunched over his desk, obsessively building up tone with thousands of tiny strokes, willing the scene into being. The angel shimmers with divine light, surrounded by the shadows of the cave and the dark manes of the beasts. A single, very fine line creates the halo. Isn't it amazing how a minimal gesture can suggest so much? Skovgaard was part of a movement to create a distinctly Nordic art, rooted in folklore and the landscape. Although this scene is biblical, perhaps he was thinking about the ancient sagas and myths of his homeland when he drew it. Artists are always borrowing and building on each other’s work, across time and space.