Niels Klim in Potu 1785 - 1786

Editor: So here we have "Niels Klim in Potu," painted in oil by Nicolai Abildgaard between 1785 and 1786. It's part of the collection at the Statens Museum for Kunst. It’s interesting to me, because, while there are elements of a traditional portrait, it’s the buildings and natural scenery that make this painting stand out to me. What is your interpretation of it? Curator: I see this less as a straightforward portrait and more as an investigation into social status through material display and the economics of image creation. Abildgaard’s choices regarding the cityscape and figuration point towards consumption habits, the artist’s place in that world, and access to particular goods, like, say, pigments for paint. Editor: So you're saying the artist’s, or even the subject’s, access to resources like paint and location can inform our interpretation? Curator: Absolutely. Oil paint itself, the clothing depicted, the suggestion of land ownership in the cityscape, the potential leisure suggested by his pose… these all signal economic power in late 18th-century Denmark. What kind of labor went into producing what is shown to us here? Editor: I hadn’t really thought of it in terms of labor before, just in terms of ownership. Thinking of the materiality definitely opens up the painting. Are you suggesting Abildgaard himself would have needed a patron? Curator: Certainly. The art market of the time required the economic support of the upper classes. Therefore, understanding the system of artistic production informs the social dynamic taking place in the painting itself. Editor: That's a great way to think about this piece. I will definitely consider this type of economic material analysis for similar pieces going forward.