Rejsedagbog 1845

Curator: This is *Rejsedagbog* by Johan Thomas Lundbye, created around 1845. It’s currently housed at the SMK – Statens Museum for Kunst. As a drawing, its texture and age of the paper surface are central to its effect. Editor: It feels quite intimate, almost like intruding on the artist’s private thoughts. The aged paper gives it a sense of history and immediacy all at once. What strikes you most about the visual composition? Curator: The arrangement of text, of course, is paramount. Note how the script varies in pressure and slant. The hand’s movement across the page – it breathes, doesn't it? Semiotically, consider what the density of writing, almost a block, conveys. There is a lack of deliberate, formal pictorial space which creates an interesting tension with its purpose as a record. Does the text function as line in a drawing? Editor: That’s interesting. So, you are seeing the handwriting itself as almost a drawing, not just as text with a message? I hadn't considered that. Curator: Precisely. Erased and rewritten text emphasizes the movement, the *work* of writing as physical action. Without understanding the language can the overall texture become form? Editor: It really does make me think about the physical act of writing and drawing and journaling and what those actions embody. Thank you. Curator: Indeed. Considering the artwork beyond subject opens up many new possible interpretations.