"Romersk" prospekt 1730 - 1793

Jens Petersen Lund created this small drawing, "Romersk" prospekt, using pen and watercolor. He was working at a time when Europe was in the grip of the Grand Tour, a rite of passage for young, upper-class men seeking to expand their cultural horizons through travel. Lund never travelled to Rome. Instead, he imagined it from afar, relying on existing artwork and descriptions. The romanticism of ruins and the glory of a past empire were a popular subject. His Rome is painted in muted blues and browns and feels more imagined than real. Note how the few figures in the foreground are dwarfed by the monuments; this wasn't just a depiction of a physical place, but an expression of a particular kind of longing and identity. The drawing, and others like it, invite us to consider how identity is tied to place, both real and imagined. It makes you wonder, doesn't it? About who gets to claim ownership of history, and whose stories get told.