Stubmøllen ved Store Magleby 1914

Curator: This etching, "Stubmøllen ved Store Magleby," dating back to 1914, is by the hand of Axel Holm. It’s currently housed here at the SMK. Tell me, what strikes you most about it? Editor: There's a haunting quality, don't you think? Almost like a dreamscape. The starkness of the monochrome adds to that, and there's such stillness, it feels like time stopped here long ago. Curator: Interesting take! The starkness indeed comes from the etching technique, with its intricate network of fine lines defining forms and creating tonal variations. It seems like a very precise but personal recording of the landscape, of that time. Editor: And the composition, leading your eye from the overgrown field towards the dilapidated windmill and that distant cottage… it's almost a commentary on the decay of rural life, no? Curator: It could be interpreted that way. Although Holm focuses more on the beauty of form in the humble architecture and nature itself. The textural contrasts are key here. The roughness of the windmill against the soft sky. The prickly vegetation contrasted with the smooth lines of the building. Editor: I see your point about the textures. The detail is striking; look at how the artist even made the windmill's old timber stand out, with its aged characteristics, yet surrounded by fields with overgrown vegetation as I can only imagine from the time when the drawing was created. It definitely takes me there. But there’s definitely a mood that goes beyond formal observation, for me. Curator: Perhaps that speaks to the lasting impact of modernist sentiments, and the beauty he finds in simplicity. An important part of the landscape tradition within modernism. I agree; it captures more than just the eye. It feels like a quiet elegy. Editor: Absolutely. It invites reflection and it also made me feel deeply what no words can describe but the touch and feeling on paper.