En skov set fra en bakke 1865

Curator: This quick, unassuming pencil sketch, "A Forest Seen From a Hill," dates from 1865. It’s by P.C. Skovgaard, a key figure in Danish Golden Age painting, and it resides here in the SMK collection. What do you make of it? Editor: It has a kind of raw, immediate energy to it. It almost feels like a captured breath—the hushed expectancy you experience right before stepping into the woods. The light is beautifully handled for a simple pencil sketch, so soft. Curator: Skovgaard executed it en plein air, giving it that sense of immediacy. Look at the scribbled quality of the foliage—he’s trying to capture not just the appearance, but also the very feel of being in that space. It’s pure romanticism! Editor: The trees, for me, feel almost like figures huddled together. The subtle differences in tone and shading—the lighter areas suggesting open spaces within the woods—lend a powerful emotional weight. It makes me think of those liminal spaces in fairy tales where anything is possible. The trees both conceal and promise. Curator: Yes, the composition guides your eye through the different "layers," drawing you deeper into the woods. The high vantage point provides an interesting sense of distance, of observation. There is no human presence…it's the landscape that commands attention. Editor: It makes me wonder, too, about the symbolism of the forest itself. Across cultures, forests often represent the unconscious, the unexplored, the place of trials and transformations. This image has a timeless quality. You can project all sorts of cultural anxieties and fantasies onto it. Curator: Skovgaard definitely captured the evocative, symbolic dimension of the natural world, as it echoed through the art and literature of his time. Perhaps we sense his longing for nature as something separate and sacred in this fleeting sketch? Editor: Exactly! Ultimately, it transcends being merely a visual record; it resonates as an emotional and cultural landscape that holds a strange, enduring power over our imagination. It's like a quiet echo of something ancient within us.