Drengehoved 1837

Johan Thomas Lundbye sketched this portrait of a boy in pencil in Copenhagen in 1837. Lundbye was a leading figure in the Danish Golden Age, a period of intense national self-discovery. This simple drawing reflects the Romantic era's fascination with childhood innocence and the importance of national identity. The precise lines and delicate shading reveal the artist’s training at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, an institution that played a key role in shaping artistic styles of the time. While the sketch seems straightforward, we might ask, who was this boy? Was he from the rising middle class, whose children were now seen as individuals worthy of artistic attention? Or was he perhaps from the circle of the artist himself? Understanding the social context of the artwork requires archival work to reveal the relationships that shaped artistic production in the period. In this way, historical research reveals how art reflects the social structures of its time.