Illustration til Christian Winther, "Chresten og Lene" 1889 - 1926

Waldemar Bøhme made this illustration for Christian Winther's "Chresten og Lene" using pen and ink. I imagine him hunched over a desk, carefully hatching those tiny lines. The landscape is super detailed, with a thatched roof cottage and cows chilling in the field, but it’s the stork in flight that grabs your attention, right? Its wings are spread wide, caught in this dramatic moment. I bet Bøhme wanted to capture something about the spirit of the poem. It reminds me of other illustrators like Aubrey Beardsley, who used stark black and white to create really evocative images. You can see the physicality of the medium here—the way the ink bleeds ever so slightly into the paper. That one simple gesture of the bird—that speaks volumes. It's the kind of thing that connects artists across time, each responding to the world and the work of others in their own way.