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Martinus Rørbye made this watercolor landscape showing a man overlooking a moor or dunes. The exact date isn’t known, but it was probably made sometime in the first half of the 19th century. The image presents a Romantic view of nature in Denmark. The lone figure is a visual code that prompts the viewer to imagine themselves in a similar situation. The focus on nature coincided with the country’s growing national consciousness. Following the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark was in search of a new identity, and its artists looked to the local landscape for inspiration. Rørbye was part of a generation that helped establish the Danish Golden Age of painting. He was a student at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, an important institution, and one that shaped the direction of art at this time. To understand this work further, one can research how Denmark’s national identity was being constructed in the arts during this period, and explore the curriculum of the Royal Danish Academy. These steps reveal the social and institutional contexts of the work.