Collins gård i Bredgade 1833 - 1895

Curator: Welcome to the Statens Museum for Kunst. We're now in front of Carl Frederik Bartsch’s print, "Collins gård i Bredgade." Created between 1833 and 1895, it’s a beautifully detailed engraving that depicts a cityscape. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: It's very calm. The texture created by the engraving technique is beautiful, evoking a still moment, and also seems meticulously crafted. The people seem suspended, caught in the act of going somewhere. Curator: It's interesting you say "calm," given the print was made during a period of immense urban and social change in Copenhagen. Prints like these, sold and collected, served as visual records, creating a sense of collective identity amidst that flux. Editor: So it is not simply documentary, but has a larger socio-cultural implication... How were buildings such as this one used? And why make the buildings a focus of such a scene, not a portrait, say, of the occupants or citizens of the locale? Curator: Bredgade was a street that housed many aristocratic homes, and Collins Gård would have represented an established wealthy identity. Prints of significant buildings were highly sought after as status symbols. Editor: I wonder about the inclusion and position of those figures in the foreground. A lone person to the far left is cut off by the frame; a trio is in the opposite corner. The scale difference makes me wonder about social position and relationships—and what they tell us about Copenhagen at the time. Curator: It’s tempting to analyze these figures through a lens of social hierarchy. In 19th century Denmark, clear class distinctions were visualized everywhere. Do the engraver’s details either uphold or disrupt it? Editor: It is a moment of both performance and social reality. There's also a subtle tension. This moment in Bredgade becomes more than a simple, quiet scene—it’s an index of that era’s urban identity and, perhaps, unspoken social codes. It really illustrates art's unique power in documenting evolving communities. Curator: Indeed. And a quiet reminder of how much can be gleaned from even the seemingly simplest urban scene.