Fortunen ved Dyrehaven 1763 - 1809

Curator: This is Elias Meyer’s “Fortunen ved Dyrehaven,” an etching and engraving, believed to have been made sometime between 1763 and 1809. The work is currently housed at the SMK, the National Gallery of Denmark. Editor: The high contrast and miniature figures really give a sense of bustling life set against this very still backdrop of trees and structures. It feels almost staged. Curator: Exactly. Dyrehaven, or "The Deer Garden", was—and still is—a park just north of Copenhagen. Places such as these were symbolically important; landscapes could express national identity, ownership. The controlled "wildness," reflects a certain era's desires. Editor: Absolutely. And notice the ways social class is being represented here, subtly yet pointedly. Consider how horseback riding and carriage use are privileges displayed within a leisure space designed, arguably, to reinforce hierarchy through accessible, yet classed recreational experience. The figures near the building, perhaps the service class that enable these elites leisure? Curator: Perhaps. I find it compelling to examine the way Meyer captured this location. Think of the cultural weight that engravings carried, documenting an "official" version of this idyllic space to its intended audience. And he uses the tools of light and shadow to add the touch of symbolic truth! Editor: Yes, truth heavily filtered through a lens of power, class, and, as you note, constructed ideas of the landscape. This carefully rendered park becomes more than just scenery. It's a loaded tableau revealing how leisure itself becomes a performance, almost like an ideological stage. Curator: Indeed, "performance" is key. And the symbol! Landscape isn't just what we see; it becomes something people want others to see them being part of! It reflects aspiration, desire, belonging to something carefully manufactured. Editor: Well, after this consideration, it's very different for me looking again now: what started as just trees and figures has so much packed beneath its surface. Curator: Agreed. It's no longer just ink on paper, it's a portal to past ideas.