Visionen for Danmark GULD
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VISIONEN FOR DANMARK: EN POLITISK LANDSKABSKUNST RESUMÉ Årstallene 1814 og 1864 har altid markeret sig som smertelige ar i 1800-tallets historie: Tabet af Norge på den ene side og afståelsen af Slesvig og Holsten på den anden side. Disse skelsættende amputeringer reducerede det danske riges status og jordbesiddelser fra dobbeltmonarki af betragtelig størrelse til en lilleputstat med en grænse, der gik syd for Kolding. Det yndige land, som Adam Oehlenschläger (1779-1850) beskrev i national- sangen, blev stækket i størrelse og kraft efter 1814, og ud af denne stemning, der indfandt sig mellem årene 1814 og 1864, mobiliserede en landskabskunst sig med nye skildringer af det danske land. I billeder søgte kunstnerne at definere den særligt danske natur, som den kunne opleves i skovene, ved kysterne og arkitektoniske seværdigheder. Disse billeder, der blev til i den tidsånd, hvor samfundets magthavere og kulturelle elite havde behov for at definere en ny og forstærket national identitet, var imidlertid ofte politisk motiveret. Det viste sig nemlig, at ikke kun var kunstnerne venner med tidens førende politikere; politikerne bestilte også kunstværker hos dem og prægede herigennem deres motivvalg. “Visionen for Danmark: en politisk landskabskunst” er fortællingen om tiden omkring 1840’erne til 1860’erne, hvor kunst og politik dannede parløb, og hvor kunstnerne lod sig forføre af tidens nationalliberale politikere, der talte for demokratiske styreformer. KARINA LYKKE GRAND PH.D., ADJUNKT I KUNSTHISTORIE OG VISUEL KULTUR VED AARHUS UNIVERSITET 94 REJSEBILLEDER – TURIST I ARKADIEN? THE VISION FOR DENMARK: A POLITICAL LANDSCAPE PAINTING ABSTRACT The years 1814 and 1864 have always stood out as painful scars in the history of the 1800s: the loss of Norway on the one hand and the cession of Schleswig and Holstein on the other. These epoch-making amputations reduced the status of the Kingdom of Denmark and its holdings from a Dual Monarchy of considerable size to a pocket state with a border which ran south of Kolding. The lovely country, which Adam Oehlenschläger (1779-1850) described in the national anthem, had its wings clipped in size and power after 1814, and out of this atmosphere, which was found between the years 1814 and 1864, a landscape painting mobilised with new depictions of the Danish countryside. The artists attempted to define the special Danish nature in pictures, which could be experienced in the forests, by the coasts and through architectonic landmarks. The pictures that were produced in this zeitgeist, where those in power and the cultural elite of society needed to define a new and reinforced national identity, were, however, often politically motivated. As it turned out, not only were the artists friends with the leading politicians of the time, but the politicians also commissioned artworks from them and through this influenced their choice of motifs. “The vision for Denmark: a political landscape painting” is the narrative of the time around the 1840s to the 1860s, where art and politics formed a partnership, and where the artists allowed themselves to be seduced by the National Liberal politicians of the time, who spoke of democratic forms of government. KARINA LYKKE GRAND PH.D., Assistant PROFESSOR OF Art History AND VISUAL Culture, AARHUS UNIVERSITY TRAVEL IMAGES – A TOURIST IN ARCADIA? 95 VISIONEN FOR DANMARK: THE VISION FOR DENMARK: EN POLITISK LANDSKABSKUNST A POLITICAL LANDSCAPE PAINTING BETRAGTNINGER OVER DET DANSKE LAND(SKAB) REFLECTIONS ON THE DANISH LAND(SCAPE) Man sammenligner med rette vort Folks Character med vort Lands. One rightly compares the character of our people with the character Vi omgives af en Natur, hvori ingen af de store Kræfter fremtræde of our country. We are surrounded by a nature in which none of med nogen særdeles Overvægt… Men har det ikke himmelhøje the great powers stand out with any extraordinary predominance… Fjelde og mægtige Floder, saa bølger dets Overflade med yndige But if it does not have sky-high mountains and mighty rivers, it has Bakker, oplives af klare Søer, bekranses af løvrige Skove og beklæ- surfaces undulating with lovely hills, enlivened by clear lakes ringed des af det herligste grønt…Er dette ikke den venlige, rolige og dog by leafy forests and clad in the most magnificent green… Is this not virksomme ligevægts Character. the friendly, tranquil and yet actively balanced character. (H.C. Ørsted, 1843)1 (H.C. Ørsted, 1843)1 I årene forud for Det Danske Kongeriges opløsning af Rigsfælles- Prior to the Kingdom of Denmark’s dissolution of the union with skabet med Norge i 1814 vandrede historikeren og sprogforskeren Norway in 1814, the historian and linguist Christian Molbech Christian Molbech (1783-1853) rundt på Sjælland, Fyn og Jylland. (1783-1853) hiked around Zealand, Funen and Jutland. The Oplevelserne fra disse vandringer stod senere at læse i bøgerne experiences from these walking tours appeared later in the books Ungdomsvandringer i mit Fødeland, 1811/18152, der netop i lyset Ungdomsvandringer i mit Fødeland (Youthful Walks in my Native af afståelsen af Norge til Sverige fik uventet stor betydning. Fra Land), 1811/18152, which, precisely in light of the cession of Norway mange fronter opstod efterspørgsel på positiv fokusering på konge- to Sweden, gained great unexpected significance. The demand rigets tilbageværende områder, Sjælland, Fyn og Jylland, og her for positive focusing on the remaining territories of the kingdom, var Molbech leveringsdygtig i karakteristikker af disse landskabers Zealand, Funen and Jutland, cropped up on many fronts, and here æstetiske egenarter. Hertugdømmerne Slesvig, Holsten og Lauen- Molbech was well-positioned to make the aesthetic peculiarities borg og disse landskabers særpræg blev imidlertid forbigået i denne of the landscapes into characteristics. The duchies of Schleswig, forbindelse, til trods for at disse områder hørte med i den danske Holstein and Lauenborg, and their peculiar landscape characteris- helstat. I stedet koncentrerede Molbech sig om at beskrive det tics, however, were overlooked in this connection, despite these jyske landskab som sublimt, det fynske som pittoresk og det sjæl- areas belonging to the Danish United Monarchy. Instead Molbech landske landskab som skønt. Den forskelligartede beskrivelse af concentrated on describing the landscape of Jutland as sublime, det danske landskabs regionale særpræg blev flittigt læst i tiden og Funen as picturesque, and Zealand as beautiful. The diverse udbredt blandt daværende såvel som efterfølgende generationer af descriptions of the Danish landscape’s distinctive regional charac- kunstnere. teristics were frequently read at the time and widespread among Det der gør Molbechs opdelte forestilling yderst interessant i generations of artists then as well as those following after. vores sammenhæng er, at hans skrift på mange måder var typisk What makes Molbech’s categorised representation most for sin tid men også forud for sin tid, fordi det indeholdt overgangs- interesting in this context is that his writing was, in many ways, forestillinger mellem en patriotisk, enevældstro verdensopfattelse typical for its time but also ahead of its time, because it contained interim representations between a world view that was patriotic and loyal to autocracy and a national, middle class world view. In the latter, the emphasis on the regional and “native land” has meaning, in particular, as they were precisely two complex factors which were most definitely being negotiated in the decades that followed, and the meanings of which, moreover, were displaced. In Molbech’s time the United Monarchy was outwardly the dominant state ideo logy in the country with the absolute monarch king in the centre of power, where one devoted oneself to the king, his symbolism and flag as an identity-creating figure and sign of the United Monarchy. The feeling of identity in the United Monarchy was in many ways characterised by the cosmopolitan disposition of the Enlighten ment, and therefore one did not cultivate the peculiar regional characteristics as a common denominator. But Molbech did just that, and he even emphasised that his hiking trips took place in the “native land”. In Molbech’s era, use of the phrase “native land” was, however, not charged with the characteristically marked national sentiment of later years, but was concerned rather with the community of the middle classes in the country one lived [ill. 1] C.W. Eckersberg, En Udflyttergård af Bondebyen Speitsby på Møen (An Outlying Farm in. The native land was, therefore, not necessarily the place one by the Peasant town of Speitsby on Møen), 1810. Olie på lærred / Oil on canvas, 57,5 x 75 cm. Kunsthalle zu Kiel. was born. But Molbech thought about it a little differently. The new 96 VISIONEN FOR DANMARK: EN POLITISK LANDSKABSKUNST [ill.2] J.Th. Lundbye, En gravhøj fra oldtiden ved Raklev på Refsnæs (Prehistoric Burial Mound at Raklev on Refsnæs), 1839. Olie på lærred / Oil on canvas, 66,7 x 88,9 cm. Thorvaldsens Museum. og en national borgerlig verdensopfattelse.3 I sidstnævnte har især upcoming liberal politicians did the same in the years that followed, betoningen af det regionale og “fødelandet” betydning, for det except their outset was in other ideologies.4 From the 1830s and var netop to komplekse faktorer, der i den grad kom til at stå til onwards an inward commotion emerged in the political climate, forhandling i de følgende årtier, og hvis betydninger tilmed også and here the dismantling of autocracy was worked on as well forskød sig. På Molbechs tid var helstatspatriotismen udadtil lan- as greater power for the middle classes in the dawning National dets dominerende statsideologi med den enevældige konge i mag- Liberal circles. According to them, the native land was where one tens centrum, hvor man dyrkede kongen, hans symboler og flag felt at home among like-minded individuals and not least the place som helstatens identitetsskabende skikkelse og tegn. Helstatens where one was born. The artists thought about it in the same way.