Kronprinsen stående som i det færdige billede på Fredensborg 1781

Curator: Here we have a pencil drawing by Jens Juel, dating back to 1781. Its full title is "Kronprinsen stående som i det færdige billede på Fredensborg"—"The Crown Prince standing as in the finished picture at Fredensborg." Editor: Immediately, I’m struck by the ephemeral quality. It's a sketch, so the lines are tentative, almost like a fleeting thought captured on paper. He seems poised, yet fragile. Curator: Indeed. It's a study for a more formal portrait, embodying elements of Neoclassicism in its restrained elegance. We can appreciate the bare minimum of ornamentation in the crown prince’s formal dress. Editor: But it also possesses this fascinating lack of finality. The ghost of the chair in the background; his feet are bare. It reveals process, the artist figuring out the composition and the prince's stance. He seems naked somehow in this drawing; so raw, so exposed. Curator: His lack of footwear provides an interesting contrast, as though both prepared and relaxed. Consider how Juel is thinking through the visual rhetoric, playing with both established tropes of nobility and intimations of movement away from them. Editor: I think that contributes to the portrait's unique vulnerability. This isn't the unassailable sovereign but a young man, maybe slightly self-conscious, almost surprised to be found posing here for the artist. The unfinished quality amplifies that. Curator: And within the semiotic language of the work, we can deconstruct this further; the pose itself is self-conscious, yes, but equally proud. Juel uses negative space cleverly to suggest a wider context and mood beyond the physical dimensions of the subject matter itself. Editor: For me, it really gets me thinking about the act of creating an image and what we reveal or conceal in the final work. This raw state, full of possibilities. Beautiful, honest and quite rare. Curator: An appropriate way to capture a member of the aristocracy on the cusp of leadership in troubled times, and, hopefully, a rare chance for our listeners to peek behind the curtain into Juel’s process as an artist.