A Calf Scratching Itself Behind Its Ear 1887

Editor: This is Anne Marie Carl Nielsen’s bronze sculpture, "A Calf Scratching Itself Behind Its Ear," created in 1887, currently at the SMK. It’s smaller than I imagined, and the bronze gives it such a grounded, earthy feel. What draws your attention most when you look at it? Curator: Immediately, I think of the casting process. The calf, initially modeled in clay or wax, would have undergone a transformation through intense heat and human labor. Consider the foundries of the late 19th century: spaces of intense physical effort, where societal divisions between the artist’s vision and the workers’ execution were stark. Editor: So, it’s not just about Nielsen’s artistic intention, but about the whole network involved in bringing the sculpture into being? Curator: Precisely. The sculpture embodies that network. Bronze, as a material, carries a history of mining, trade, and the specific techniques of alloying copper and tin. These processes – the labor – shaped not only the final form, but also the economic and social conditions surrounding its creation. Editor: That shifts my perspective completely. I was initially focused on the animal itself, its pose. Curator: And the pose is important. Does this action -- the calf scratching -- strike you as being ennobling, grand, in a way similar to how humans would be represented in similar sculptures? Editor: No, definitely not. It seems to capture a fleeting moment of everyday animal existence. There’s almost an irony to elevating something so commonplace with bronze. Curator: It’s this tension – between the inherent value associated with bronze and the seemingly mundane subject matter – that makes it interesting. This sculpture challenges us to reconsider the boundaries between "high art" and the everyday lives and material conditions of animals, and humans too. I wonder, in a time of great debates about agricultural practice, if it wasn't some subtle commentary on what labor *should* be. Editor: I hadn't thought of it that way, as a statement on labor itself, almost like a social document. This makes me want to know more about the foundries Nielsen would have worked with and their place in the social landscape. Curator: Exactly! Now you're looking at the matrix of factors informing its genesis. It also offers another perspective of what is "worthy" to be rendered immortal in such costly material.