"En sportsmand" 1936

Curator: This is Robert Storm Petersen's "En sportsmand," a drawing made with pen and ink dating back to 1936. Editor: My initial reaction? It feels wonderfully satirical. All these backs of heads, mostly wearing hats, gazing intently...it suggests something about spectatorship. Curator: Exactly! Petersen, often known as Storm P., was a master of social commentary through humor. This work reflects his engagement with genre painting, but twisted through the lens of comic art. We see a crowd, likely watching some sporting event, reduced to their most basic, almost cartoonish forms. Editor: I'm struck by the density of the ink work. The background—the imagined crowd or perhaps the stadium itself—is created with this incredible hatching, a really repetitive mark-making. What kind of statement does that meticulous detail make considering the simplicity of the figures? Curator: It could suggest the overwhelming nature of crowds, the individual lost in the mass. Remember, the 1930s were a period of rising mass culture, mass movements. Petersen often critiqued the conformist aspects of society. Editor: And the bodies themselves are monumental, but so plainly rendered. Look at the tailoring and the rotund bodies under. The sheer physical mass suggests a certain social standing or class, perhaps the burgeoisie at leisure? Curator: Precisely! Petersen often poked fun at the middle class, their habits and pretensions. Sport, in this context, becomes a spectacle, a form of passive entertainment consumed by these rather imposing figures. It makes you think about the labour involved versus who has access to it. Editor: It's a brilliant contrast—this dense background, these monumental figures. Makes one consider their own viewing habits! Curator: Indeed. The drawing really encapsulates so much about Petersen's style, blending humor with a sharp observation of Danish society at the time. Editor: Seeing the dedication in a simple line drawing made of basic material such as ink is very evocative. Curator: A piece offering wry commentary relevant beyond its own time.