Portræt af Hofkirurg Hans Friedrich Wohlert 1775 - 1779

Curator: Looking at this portrait, the overwhelming feeling is one of composure and self-assurance, wouldn't you agree? The details, the textures are very precise, the face seems severe. Editor: Indeed. We have here J.F. Clemens’s rendering from sometime between 1775 and 1779, a print titled "Portrait of Court Surgeon Hans Friedrich Wohlert," now housed here at the Statens Museum for Kunst. It's fascinating to consider how these images circulated and reinforced power structures in 18th-century society. Curator: Exactly. I think there’s an intentional creation of persona at play. The framed portrait of a well-to-do white male from that period, the name emblazoned at the base of the sculpture. Are we supposed to automatically respect figures like this, and what would Foucault say about such images imposing their view on a modern audience? Editor: Well, we must contextualize Clemens' work within the academic art of his time. Consider the socio-political forces and institutions that would have supported and valorized a portrait like this one, of a man who was part of the royal court in Denmark. What did it mean to be portrayed? And what impact did this portrait have in shaping public perception of Wohlert and the royal court? Curator: Yes, but even understanding that context, there’s an inherent imbalance in the power dynamics represented. Here is Wohlert, in perpetuity and for posterity, while so many others remain unrepresented, unseen. How do we, as curators, engage with the historical context, but also confront its exclusions and biases? It must be viewed, at least partially, from a feminist viewpoint that analyzes it through its implications to race and other expressions of bias. Editor: It’s also key to examine how museums display this. Framing and positioning this work inevitably imbues it with renewed meanings. Ultimately, looking at it allows one to understand not just the era in which the work was crafted, but it encourages one to see how art has become a reflection of culture as well. Curator: I’d agree that it is this opportunity for reflection, through critical assessment, that allows the art to still challenge our social frameworks, even today.