Udkast til "Aaen" 1885

Joakim Skovgaard created this ink drawing, "Udkast til 'Aaen'," with delicate lines and washes. The composition immediately draws your eye across the tranquil water to the trees clustered on the opposite bank, and then upwards to a solitary bird in flight. The scene evokes a sense of serene contemplation. The artist's choice of sepia ink lends a tonal uniformity that emphasizes the structural elements within the landscape. The poem written below the drawing is not merely descriptive, but becomes integral to the visual field, a semiotic anchor. Skovgaard's work destabilizes a conventional reading of landscape, instead the drawing and poetry combined invite us to meditate on nature and our place within its systems.