Interiør med to legende børn 1912 - 1913

Curator: Looking at this drawing, I feel like I’m stepping into a memory, a nostalgic snapshot of childhood. Editor: This drawing, crafted by Sigurd Wandel between 1912 and 1913, is titled "Interiør med to legende børn," or "Interior with two playing children" in English. Wandel used charcoal and pencil on paper to create this genre scene, and the work is currently held here at the SMK. Curator: It's the light that really grabs me. The sunbeams filtering through the windows aren’t just illumination; they’re almost a divine presence watching over these children. Notice how the room is rendered. The light fills it. It gives the scene such depth. Editor: Precisely, light carries complex symbolism! The domestic space, bathed in ethereal light, evokes ideas about innocence, domesticity, and the sanctity of childhood—an interesting notion particularly prominent in the early 20th century when social reforms focused increasingly on children's welfare and their protection. Curator: You can see it not just as sentimentality but also as an engagement with contemporary ideals. The home itself, especially within the Danish Golden Age tradition which valued scenes of quiet domesticity as emblems of national identity and cultural stability, could represent society's values. Editor: I agree, though one cannot overlook that there seems to be some other aspect of visual culture and memory here. Children, in general, have been visual emblems for vulnerability, purity, and hope—ideas universally resonant, giving an allegorical, timeless layer to genre paintings depicting such moments. This can tell a larger story about memory and about our hopes and fears as a society. Curator: Thinking about it within the context of art institutions like SMK, where it resides today, we see how the selection, preservation, and display of works contribute to defining what a culture deems worthy of remembering, valuing, and presenting to future generations. What seems personal then gains a social relevance. Editor: Indeed! And considered symbolically, it can bring new appreciation to Wandel's beautiful composition. Curator: Seeing "Interiør med to legende børn" gives you pause and perhaps to question what you bring to these kinds of seemingly simple pieces of our shared artistic patrimony. Editor: I agree. Viewing it through an iconographic lens, or an historical one, deepens the artwork’s meaning to each of us in our own contemporary society.