To italienere på en bænk ved havnen

Ditlev Blunck made this pencil drawing, "Two Italians on a Bench by the Harbor," to capture a moment he witnessed in Italy. The artist seems fascinated by these working-class men in their mundane, everyday life. Blunck was part of a community of Danish artists who went to Italy to study classical art and architecture, which the Danish Royal Academy considered an important part of artistic training. But outside of these institutions, the image of working-class Italians became popular among artists. The exotic and often romanticized image of Italian peasants can be traced back to the fascination with folklore and local customs. To understand this work, it's helpful to look at travelogues, letters, and other documents from the period that describe how Europeans viewed and represented people from different cultures. By examining these sources, we can begin to understand the social and cultural context in which Blunck created this intriguing drawing.