Studier af ørn 1864 - 1941

Curator: At the Statens Museum for Kunst, we find this sketch, "Studies of Eagle," created by Niels Larsen Stevns. This piece is dated from 1864 to 1941. It is rendered in pencil on paper, offering a glimpse into the artist's process. What strikes you immediately about it? Editor: The lightness of the pencil on paper gives the eagle an almost ghostly presence. It looks as though it might take flight from the page at any moment. It feels kinetic. Curator: The use of the eagle is no accident, of course. It's a significant symbol in national identity and visual culture. Throughout history, the eagle represents power, courage, and freedom, appearing prominently in many nation’s coats of arms. I am curious to consider what ideas, exactly, the museum’s patronage and public educational function are trying to convey. Editor: Exactly. Eagles carry centuries of weight. The eagle here also hints at a certain cultural continuity, stretching back to ancient Roman and Greek associations with Jupiter and Zeus, then forward, repurposed through various empires to today. We internalize so much about what they are supposed to stand for. But do you think, from a political stance, it might subtly echo, through its powerful stance, ideas of empire? Curator: Well, that is hard to ignore! And especially in the political atmosphere of the early 20th century, after World War I, those images gained different associations through media like propaganda. But at the same time, in this gestural, rather ambiguous state, it may have allowed for alternative possibilities as well. Editor: It’s a very unfinished study. It allows the imagination to project narratives onto it, to reconsider symbols from unexpected angles. It does a curious dance between reinforcing established ideas and pushing against them. It holds great emotive power. Curator: Indeed. It encapsulates the complicated interplay between historical symbolism and subjective experience that's ever-present in public art. It shows, through art, just how many stories an eagle can tell, or how we reinterpret them, in service of shifting social circumstances. Editor: Thanks, Niels Larsen Stevns, for reminding us to never take an image at face value! There’s so much bubbling underneath the surface, and the act of observing closely allows us to confront these complexities.