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Zealand Landscape. Open Country in North Zealand

Johan Thomas Lundbye1842

SMK - Statens Museum for Kunst

SMK - Statens Museum for Kunst
Copenhagen, Danmark

Here, Lundbye have strived to express the overall qualities of the Danish countryside, and with his chosen title he seeks to emphasise the general nature of the scene. A central feature of the painting is the winding road, which may be interpreted as an expression of the artist’s existential ruminations. In the summer of 1841 Lundbye painted two studies of the slightly hilly, open landscape near Frederiksværk, showing a small forest nestling between grassy hills in the middle of the painting. The following winter he used the two studies as the basis for this painting, which is crucially different from the studies in several ways. In his striving to identify the overall quality of the Danish countryside he has let the unique characteristics of specific sites fade and become obscured - you can only just make out the distinguishing features shown in the oil studies. Individual elements have been moved around, and the lines are noticeably more pronounced. There is a certain "simplicity and grandeur of line" here, an expression used by the art historian Niels Lauritz Høyen in 1838 when reviewing another Zealand landscape by Lundbye. For a couple of years Lundbye had worked his way towards simplifying his motifs on the one hand and embellishing them with many details on the other, and here this endeavour reached an acme. As an artist, Lundbye has distanced himself from his point of departure, Købke. At this point, his panoramic depictions of nature and the sweeping lines are more reminiscent of the landscape painter Louis Gurlitt from Holstein, who did similar work in several of his paintings. The mossy boulders and windswept bushes in the foreground are significant additions compared to the studies; they help add depth to the remote background. The great sense of joy that Lundbye invested in this part of the painting undoubtedly owes a debt to the Norwegian artist J. C. Dahl. The most significant change in the composition, however, is the addition of the road. Indeed, roads of this kind – winding their way through the landscape with no visible end in sight – is a recurring feature of Lundbye’s paintings. In view of Lundbye’s restlessness, anxiety, and existential musings it is tempting to interpret this road as a symbol of unresolved life goals. When Lundbye selected this motif he was undoubtedly searching for a landscape that seemed untouched. He has not, however, found a piece of countryside untouched by human hand. On Zealand almost all of the open land had been cultivated for agriculture. But he did avoid the tilled field, opting instead to show the rather wilder common. Lundbye exhibited the painting in 1842 under the title Zealand Landscape in order to accentuate the general nature of the motif - the subtitle is a later addition pinpointing the location.

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  • Title: Zealand Landscape. Open Country in North Zealand
  • Creator: Johan Thomas Lundbye
  • Creator Lifespan: 1818 Kalundborg - 1848 Bedsted, Thisted
  • Creator Nationality: Danish
  • Creator Gender: Male
  • Creator Birth Place: Kalundborg
  • Creator Death Place: Bedsted, Thisted
  • Date Created: 1842
  • Værktekst: Lundbye har her bestræbt sig på at indkredse den generelle karakter i dansk natur og forsøger med titlen at betone motivets almene karakter. Værket rummer dog stadig, som så mange af Lundbyes værker, en snoet og uoverskuelig vej, som af flere tolkes som udtryk for kunstnerens egen kringlede natur. I sommeren 1841 malede Lundbye to studier af det let bakkede, åbne landskab nær Frederiksværk, hvor en mindre skov ses midt i billedet mellem de græsklædte småbakker. I den følgende vinter lagde han de to studier til grund for dette maleri, som imidlertid på afgørende måde adskiller sig fra forarbejderne. I sin stræben efter at indkredse den generelle karakter i den danske natur har han ladet det konkrete motivs særpræg fortone sig mere end tidligere - man aner kun lige akkurat kendetegnene fra oliestudierne. De enkelte elementer er blevet forskudt i forhold til hinanden, og linjeføringen er trukket markant op. Der er "Simpelhed og Storhed i Linierne", som kunsthistorikeren Niels Lauritz Høyen talte om i 1838, da han anmeldte et andet af Lundbyes sjællandske landskaber. Lundbye havde i et par år arbejdet mod på én gang at forenkle motivet og berige det med mange detaljer, og denne bestræbelse har her nået en foreløbig kulmination i hans kunst. I kunstnerisk henseende har Lundbye fjernet sig fra sit udgangspunkt, Købke. I den panoramiske skildring af naturen og den stort anlagte linjeføring kan man snarere se påvirkning fra den holstenske landskabsmaler Louis Gurlitt, der viste lignende bestræbelser i flere af sine malerier. En væsentlig tilføjelse i forhold til studierne er forgrundens mosgroede sten og forblæste småbuske, der sætter den fjerne baggrund i relief. Den store glæde, Lundbye har lagt i skildringen af denne del af billedet, står givetvis i gæld til den norske maler J. C. Dahl. Den vigtigste ændring i kompositionen er dog indføjelsen af vejen. Et gennemgående træk i en række af Lundbyes malerier er netop denne vej, der slynger sig gennem landskabet, og hvis endelige bestemmelse ikke kan overskues. Når man tager Lundbyes urolige og søgende sind og mange eksistentielle overvejelser i betragtning, er det fristende at tolke vejen som symbol på det endnu uafklarede mål med hans liv. Da Lundbye valgte motivet, søgte han uden tvivl et landskab, der virkede uberørt og oprindeligt. Men han har dog ikke her fundet et stykke natur, der ikke bærer præg af menneskets færden. På Sjælland var det åbne land næsten alt sammen landbrugsland. Han har dog undgået de opdyrkede marker og har i stedet valgt det mere vildtvoksende overdrev. Lundbye udstillede maleriet i 1842 og gav det titlen Siællandsk Landskab for at betone motivets almene karakter - undertitlen er en senere tids tilføjelse som præcision af lokaliteten.
  • Teknik: Olie på lærred
  • Proveniens: Køb 1842
  • Dansk link: http://www.smk.dk/index.php?id=2329
  • Dansk Titel: Sjællandsk landskab. Åben egn i det nordlige Sjælland
  • Physical Dimensions: w127.5 x h94.5 cm (Without frame)
  • Featured Place: Frederiksværk
  • Provenance: Acquired 1842
  • Type: Painting
  • Rights: Statens Museum for Kunst, http://www.smk.dk/en/copyright/creative-commons/
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
SMK - Statens Museum for Kunst

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