Udsigt mod skovklædt bakkedrag 1837 - 1841

Dankvart Dreyer created this delicate landscape drawing using pen and brown ink. Dreyer, who was working in the mid-19th century, captures a typical Danish view of a wooded hillside. What’s really compelling here is the quiet intimacy and the simplicity of the scene. You can almost feel the cool of the open fields, set against the darker, denser woods. Dreyer's identity as a landscape painter was very much tied to his sense of national belonging and cultural identity. For Dreyer and his contemporaries, these landscapes were a means of expressing a connection to their homeland, and it reflects the national romanticism movement. In his own words, Dreyer sought to depict the "peculiar character" of the Danish landscape, an approach which moves away from the grand, idealized landscapes of earlier art historical periods. Instead, this sketch invites us to contemplate the subtle beauty and emotional resonance of the everyday.