Valkyries 1871

Curator: Look at Elisabeth Jerichau Baumann's “Valkyries,” painted in 1871, an oil on canvas currently housed at the SMK. What's your first reaction? Editor: It's moody, isn’t it? Dramatic brushstrokes, the colour palette is quite muted—all that brown, gray, and a splash of red beneath the horses creates an ethereal quality. They are very imposing, though, rushing toward the viewer like this. Curator: I'm intrigued by the visible layering of the oil paint, the texture so thick in places, particularly the manes of the horses. The surface is built up, gestural, which contradicts a tradition where the artist wanted you to completely lose any awareness of its materiality. Editor: Exactly. I think Jerichau Baumann, even within the framework of Romanticism, is making a commentary on power, gender, and agency. These aren't dainty figures. The Valkyries, in Norse myth, are choosers of the slain, and there is an assertion here of female strength, almost defiance, during a time when those concepts were incredibly restricted. Curator: Considering the painting was completed around the time of the Franco-Prussian War, might it be possible to read the work as more of a commentary on the violence? Note the craftsmanship itself—it’s as though the artist consciously avoided highly polished realism, to better channel this primordial vision. Editor: I find it a powerful, nuanced vision. I'm struck by how Jerichau Baumann used a mythological lens to grapple with broader social tensions surrounding women and warfare. Her choice of figures who decided fate speaks volumes about questioning pre-existing notions of power. Curator: For me, the question is: How did Jerichau Baumann's material choices reflect and shape the cultural narratives? To choose paint, brushes and canvas to depict figures from folklore, in a landscape tradition is quite intriguing. Editor: And it all coalesces to give us something greater than mere historical painting. Her decision to depict powerful, female mythological figures at such an imposing scale pushes us to confront our own assumptions. Curator: It makes you reconsider what 'heroic' can truly signify when applied so deliberately through a female lens, using traditional artistic methods and materials. Editor: A defiant commentary, etched in brushstrokes and colour.