Ved morgenkaffen 1893

Curator: Peter Ilsted's etching, "Ved morgenkaffen," or "Morning Coffee," created in 1893. It has found a home here at the SMK, the National Gallery of Denmark. Editor: Oh, there's such a hushed quiet about this print. It feels like stepping into someone's memory. The soft grays... it's like dawn itself captured on paper. Curator: It's very characteristic of Ilsted's domestic scenes, wouldn't you agree? A woman, probably his wife, caught in a private moment over coffee, and filtered light streaming in. Notice how Ilsted carefully balances realism with something more evocative through the light? Editor: Absolutely, this image invites contemplation. That open window is almost a portal. The lilies, a rather common religious symbol signifying purity or resurrection, are at home next to the coffee setting. How might that speak to something outside a simple morning coffee ritual? Curator: Yes, there are several ways to read those flowers. Is it a nod towards renewal, a symbolic representation of the woman’s internal world reflected on that stark morning table? Also, it wouldn't be far fetched to notice an intentional parallel in composition to many Annunciation scenes found throughout the Renaissance canon... Editor: The everyday imbued with symbolism... I find myself wondering about the cool tones. Almost melancholic...Is the coffee a moment of respite or a marker of a longer day ahead? The table has its objects carefully selected; an invitation to a deeper story about habits. Curator: And look at how Ilsted’s use of the etching technique mimics that atmosphere – the finely hatched lines build up such nuanced tonality. And did you happen to notice his personal items in the periphery, hinting at his presence as an artist? Is he suggesting the difficulty to keep things sacred to oneself while one's personal reality and interior lives must be bartered through an external world to make a living? It makes you question how conscious Ilsted might be making his private life available to outside judgment, to then seek meaning to validate the gesture through the artwork. Editor: Food for thought as the mind awakens in the morning and interprets what remains. Ilsted presents such a tender intimacy... as if catching someone else's memory as well as his own, which allows anyone to imprint theirs and consider this "Morning Coffee."