{"id":3350,"date":"2019-07-01T12:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T10:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.perspectivejournal.dk\/life-work-and-home-stead-a-queer-portrait-of-kristian-zahrtmann\/"},"modified":"2024-03-19T14:42:23","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T13:42:23","slug":"life-work-and-home-stead-a-queer-portrait-of-kristian-zahrtmann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.perspectivejournal.dk\/en\/life-work-and-home-stead-a-queer-portrait-of-kristian-zahrtmann\/","title":{"rendered":"Life, work and home-stead: A queer portrait of Kristian Zahrtmann"},"content":{"rendered":"
Fig. 1.<\/strong> Anonymous: \u201dMaleren Kr. Zahrtmann\u201d, portrait in the newspaper K\u00f8benhavn<\/em>, 31 March 1913, page 3. Photo: \u00a9 Royal Library of Denmark.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What follows will take its point of departure in a single event picked from the life of Danish artist Kristian Zahrtmann \u2013 his seventieth birthday \u2013 using it as a springboard for discussion what may well be Denmark\u2019s queerest artist from the past. Metaphorically speaking, the objective is to climb up the mountain of writings, opinions and interpretations about Kristian Zahrtmann in order to delimit a specific, local point of view \u2013 a new \u2018perspective\u2019 on one of the most important and still sadly overlooked projects in Danish art history. As such, this is a research article that draws on existing and familiar material1<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0\u2013 albeit set within a new framework of interpretation \u2013 supplemented by new sources. The article also serves as the background of an exhibition at three Danish museums in 2019 and 2020, where it will constitute the first among an entire collection of articles interpreting Kristian Zahrtmann in terms of queer aspects and queer theory. A central theme of the article is the idea that Zahrtmann deliberately interweaves life and art into one another in his quest to create his own place<\/em>, a concept which here includes a concrete, tangible space <\/em>and a general opportunity <\/em>for self-expression. I have chosen the term \u2018home-stead\u2019, combining terms for \u2018home\u2019 and \u2018place\u2019, to convey this sense of searching for a place of one\u2019s own. But let’s not dwell too much on methodology here at the outset \u2013 our journey begins with birthday celebrations without the man of the hour present, and some questions about place and presence prompted by this fact.<\/p>\n

Fig. 2.<\/strong> F.M.: \u201dKristian Zahrtmann 70 Aar\u201d, portrait in the newspaper Riget<\/em>, 31 March 1913, page 5. Photo: \u00a9 Royal Library of Denmark.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The missing birthday boy<\/h2>\n

\u2018Kr. Zahrtmann\u2019s 70th\u00a0birthday has been celebrated today \u2013 in articles, poems, letters and telegrams. But the festivities have taken place with no birthday boy in sight. Where is Zahrtmann?\u2019 writes \u2018Niels Griffel\u2019 in Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet on 31 March 1913. He is quick to quote the reply given by the housekeeper when the journalist knocks at Zahrtmann\u2019s door in his search: \u2018Today, Mr Zahrtmann is nowhere\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But Zahrtmann is certainly demonstrably present <\/em>in newspapers and magazines. Portraits and articles first began to make an appearance in the days leading up to his birthday, outlining a portrait of the artist which would, with only a few contentious voices being raised, remain in force for a hundred years to come [fig.1-2]<\/strong>. In 1913, Kristian Zahrtmann is particularly noted for his role as a teacher at Kunstnernes Studieskoler from 1885 to 1908, where his department was known as Zahrtmann\u2019s School,Zahrtmanns skole [Zahrtmann&#39;s School],<\/em> Copenhagen 1979.\n\">2<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0and for the crucial impact he has had on several generations of Swedish and especially Norwegian and Danish artists through his twenty-four years of teaching in opposition to the very traditional style of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. His many pupils include the so-called Funen Painters, Johannes Larsen, Fritz Syberg, Peter Hansen, and \u2013 even though these were as-yet unremarked on by critics in 1913 \u2013 future Modernists such as Edward Weie and Harald Giersing. Around the time of his 1913 birthday, newspapers and magazines also wrote about Zahrtmann\u2019s crucial support for the establishment of Den frie Udstilling (The Free Exhibition) in 1891, the first permanent exhibition society to oppose the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and its juried salons. From a present-day perspective, we see the foundation of Den frie Udstilling as a necessary new addition to the art institution in Denmark, and one which was instrumental in enabling a number of new art movements and -isms to assert themselves in Denmark. Many articles and features make a point out of relating how well-liked Zahrtmann is as a person, but also that his art only truly won recognition during the 1890s, even though he had actively exhibited his work since 1869, including at the annual academy-arranged juried spring salons at Charlottenborg.<\/p>\n

Newspapers and magazines provide lavish accounts of his annual trips, accompanied by various friends and students, to Italy and the small Italian town of Civita d\u2019Antino in Abruzzo east of Rome, where they particularly highlight his warmly affectionate relationship with the town\u2019s inhabitants. Zahrtmann\u2019s \u2018Italian\u2019 everyday scenes, full of sun and laughter, receive particular praise, and the master himself is allowed to take the floor, presenting a small piece on his recollections of \u2018A day in Civita d\u2019Antino\u2019 in Illustreret Tidende.Illustreret Tidende<\/em>, 26, 1913, pp. 311&ndash;12.\n\">3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Fig. 3.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: Leonora Christina in Prison<\/em>, 1871. Oil on canvas, 86.5 x 78.5 cm. SMK \u2013 National Gallery of Denmark, inv. no. KMS4313. Photo: Public Domain, www.smk.dk<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Fig. 4.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: Leonora Christina in Maribo Cloister<\/em>, 1914. Oil on canvas, 72 x 63 cm. Fuglsang Art Museum, inv. no. 2018\/1. Photo: \u00a9 Ole Akh\u00f8j.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yet another aspect attracted attention: Zahrtmann\u2019s special affinity with the figure of Leonora Christina (1621\u201398) [fig.3-4]<\/strong>. She was a Danish princess who ended up imprisoned for many years in Copenhagen Castle, and as a historical figure she won newfound popularity due to Zahrtmann\u2019s many paintings interpreting her life and times; a fascination which continued up through the twentieth century and to our present day, where Zahrtmann\u2019s paintings continue to shape many people\u2019s perception of Leonora Christina.Zahrtmann og Leonora<\/em>, Randers Kunstmuseum, 1984; Marianne Saabye and Jan Gorm Madsen: \u00c6re v\u00e6re Leonora. Kristian Zahrtmann og Leonora Christina<\/em>, The Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen 2006.\n\">4<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0By 1913, the link between Zahrtmann and the royal prisoner had been firmly established, but it also points back to some of the first major written treatments of Zahrtmann\u2019s work,Tilskueren<\/em>, 1885, pp. 524&ndash;43.\n\">5<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0for example, the connection is reiterated and reaffirmed on the occasion of \u00a0Zahrtmann\u2019s sixtieth birthday in 1903 and his retrospective in 1907.Illustreret Tidende<\/em>, 26, 1903, pp. 404-05; Helmer Lind: &lsquo;Christian Zahrtmann i Kunstforeningen, Illustreret Tidende<\/em>, 22, 1907, pp. 289&ndash;92.\n\">6<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In every version of the narrative about \u2018Zahrtmann and Leonora\u2019, his first reading of the royal scion\u2019s Jammers Minde <\/em>(Memoirs of my Wretchedness) in 1869 is seen as a decisive leap within his oeuvre,Jammers-Minde<\/em>, Den gyldendalske Boghandel, Copenhagen 1869. Available online [Accessed 21 December 2018:] http:\/\/www.kb.dk\/e-mat\/dod\/130014824236_color.pdf.\n\">7<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0and his first paintings of Leonora Christina in prison are regarded as a definite break with the past. The editor of Illustreret Tidende<\/em>, Helmer Lind, expresses the general view: \u2018Immediately upon their arrival they struck one as something alien, almost a rebellion\u2019. Lind particularly points out that these paintings are devoid of all traditional, bourgeois aesthetics or sentimentality. These are new images, cultivating a different kind of steadfast resolve. And the result is a new kind of art: \u2018This particular historical figure is not alone in being seen in a different way than before; Eleonora Christina, as Zahrtmann has recreated her, has taught us to read history in general through other eyes than before, on a larger scale, richer and bolder\u2019.8<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

A mentor and catalyst for young painters and new art institutions, and the one artist to breathe new life into history painting by giving it psychological depth \u2013 there is widespread agreement on the main outlines of how the story of Zahrtmann should be told and on the place he merits in art history. \u2018He lets us see, \u2013 as the most brilliant of history writers can \u2013 with one glance, far more than what may be learned through many a laborious hour of reading\u2019.Ugens Tilskuer<\/em>, 28\/3\/1913, pp. 205&ndash;06.\n\">9<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In this sense, the celebrations surrounding Zahrtmann\u2019s birthday also become a nexus that brings together all the narratives about the ageing artist while reaffirming his prominent position on the Danish cultural scene. Overall, this image has remained in force up until the present day. And yet, the ritual praises expected of any anniversary celebration is also mingled with quite a lot of hesitation and uncertainty about the artistic project. Words such as \u2018strange\u2019 (s\u00e6r),Politiken<\/em>, 31 March 1913.\n\">10<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0\u201d\u2018peculiar\u2019(ejendommelig)Riget<\/em>, 31 March 1913.\n\">11<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0and \u2018bizarre\u2019 (m\u00e6rkelig)Berlingske Tidende<\/em>, 30 March 1913.\n\">12<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0are bandied about prolifically about the artist and his art \u2013 and not for the first time. Several express reservations about the quality of his later production, certain subjects are judged to be grotesque, and the artist \u2013 who couldn\u2019t possibly be serious, could he? \u2013 is often seen as a wit or satirist. The concept of \u2018paradox\u2019 is quite central when newspapers are called upon to describe Kristian Zahrtmann\u2019s art.<\/p>\n

The journalist from Ekstra Bladet quite literally searched in vain for the artist. But in fact, the dual experience of \u2018finding\u2019 Zahrtmann \u2013 by which I also mean identifying a specific narrative about his achievements and results \u2013 and yet not finding him at all, or at least finding something paradoxical \u2013 is in fact quite symptomatic for the general view of Zahrtmann during his own day. It is my contention, and a key point underpinning this article, that Zahrtmann himself was aware of how difficult it could be for him to find a place \u2013 <\/em>and to play a role \u2013 that was unequivocally his, <\/em>yet also acceptable in the eyes of his surroundings. During the last two decades of his life, his efforts appear to bear fruit, but not without continued challenges.<\/p>\n

The character of the artist<\/h2>\n

Where, then, might one find Zahrtmann in March of 1913? Many guessed him to be in Civita d\u2019Antino, but in fact the artist was staying incognito in Lucca, quite happy with not being sought out and possibly ill at ease with the idea of having to live up to his public persona in all the brouhaha surrounding his birthday. Irrespective of his absence, however, the celebrations of his seventieth birthday serve to reaffirm a particular narrative about Kristian Zahrtmann, making this a key nexus of his career. As such, it is excellently suited to showcase the artist\u2019s widely proliferating network.<\/p>\n

If, however, we turn to Zahrtmann\u2019s more general status around the time of World War I, his network of allies cannot wholly safeguard him against all resistance. In the more brusque realm of reviews, Zahrtmann is often the target of harsh responses. A typical review from 1914, the year after his seventieth birthday, writes disparagingly of a \u2018cacophony\u2019 in the colours of his paintings, and of \u2018[\u2026] startling contrasts within the same painter\u2019s production [\u2026]\u2019.Berlingske Tidende<\/em>, 1 July 1914.\n\">13<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The next year, in 1915, the influential art historian Vilhelm Wanscher launches a fierce discussion in newspapers by baldly stating that \u2018[Zahrtmann] is in contravention of good taste\u2019 and, accordingly, ought to down tools; a critique which is about artistic style, but also and perhaps especially about the choice of suitable \u2013 or inappropriate \u2013 subject matter: Zahrtmann is directly advised to refrain from \u2018[\u2026] painting these statuesque male models between fronds of palms against glowing sunsets\u2019.Hovedstaden<\/em>, 1 April 1915.\n\">14<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Seen in conjunction with the aforementioned review, which criticises Zahrtmann\u2019s depiction of \u2018Socrates as an ancient lecherous fool and Alcibiades as the vilest, most vulgar modern wrestler imaginable\u2019,15<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0the discomfort surrounding the artist\u2019s choice of archetypal homoerotic subject matter becomes clearer. More on this later.<\/p>\n

Mostly, however, the discussion surrounding Zahrtmann and his art is carried out with tentative caution, presenting its critique obliquely. His choice of subject matter often attracts discussion, as does his use of contrasting colours. The influential art historian and museum director Emil Hannover uses the seventieth birthday as an opportunity to describe the best uses of colour in Zahrtmann\u2019s painting, stating that \u2018a slight discordant note is added to their harmonies\u2019, while others use the more positive term \u2018symphony\u2019 to describe a use of colour which contrasts cool up against warm.Dagens Nyheder<\/em>, 6 April 1891; Pincenez: &lsquo;Den fri Udstilling&rsquo;, Social-Demokraten<\/em>, 25 March 1900; Hannover 1913.\n\">16<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Bold and intense colours that do not comply with the dominant naturalistic tradition remain a typical trait of Zahrtmann\u2019s art throughout, and critics often reach for metaphors from the realm of music when describing the distinctive effects.<\/p>\n

In everything that is written about Zahrtmann \u2013 in the birthday accolades and in reviews and critiques before and after the event \u2013 questions about personality and character hold a central position. Critics and commentators commingle Zahrtmann the man with Zahrtmann\u2019s work, and adopting a position on one means adopting a similar position on the other. The term \u2018character\u2019 is often applied, serving a dual meaning: it points to the strong idiosyncratic personality of the paintings<\/em> and the strongly positive and unique personality of the artist<\/em>; at one turn Zahrtmann himself is described as \u2018manly\u2019, then the figure of Leonora Christina in his paintings is described as possessing \u2018poise and power, dignity and nobility\u2019.17<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Many years later, art historian Erik Mortensen has commented on how art criticism around 1900 would repeatedly highlight \u2018the crucial importance of personality\u2019, even if that self-same criticism often had trouble with the truly original\u00a0personalities such as Hammersh\u00f8i, Willumsen \u2013 and Zahrtmann.Kunstkritikkens og kunstopfattelsens historie i Danmark, bd. 1. Nationen til gavn<\/em>, Rhodos, K\u00f8benhavn 1990, p. 116.\n\">18<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

As regards the question of character, we see that around this time, the issue is more about the critic than about the art \u2013 it centres on how the reviewer sees himself mirrored in the art. Supposedly, the artist and his art are being judged, but in actual fact the art and artist are compared up against the critic\u2019s own character \u2013 do they match his standards and strength of character?19<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0And in the case of Zahrtmann’s birthday, this leads to many instances of judgments which very directly impose the critic\u2019s personal values on the entire matter without further argument. Such assessments often seem out of step with the art it is all about, devoid of sensibility to the man being celebrated: ergo, Zahrtmann and his art may seem as hard as granite in one critic\u2019s eye, but sensitive and empathetic in the eyes of another. \u2018But, who knows Zahrtmann! Any description of him will be incomplete because the opposite will be just as true\u2019,Politiken<\/em>, 31 March 1913.\n\">20<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0says Ernst Goldschmidt in a birthday greeting that appears to comment on the many different gazes on Zahrtmann and their difficulties in pinning down the man and his art in a consistent assessment.<\/p>\n

The \u2018paradoxes\u2019 perceived in Zahrtmann\u2019s work say something important about the established expectations about consistency and uniformity in an artistic oeuvre: critics of the age believed it should be possible to grasp the work and artistic persona from the viewer\u2019s<\/em> personal morals and values, rather than by empathising with the worlds evoked in the works or by seeing them as comments on contemporary culture. My argument \u2013 seen from a very different viewpoint here in the twenty-first century \u2013 is that Zahrtmann\u2019s work seeks to add side stories alluding to alternative ways of living out one\u2019s sexuality and gender; it seeks to create a hitherto absent place <\/em>or room<\/em> in which other stories can be played out. In the eyes of the critique prevalent of the time, which cultivated a narrow starting point in the world of the viewer-reviewer, such side stories might seem strange and difficult to grasp because reflection began and ended with sheer \u2018gut feelings\u2019. As a result, much was overlooked in disinterested silence, whereas Zahrtmann\u2019s allusions and secondary narratives seem considerably more accessible today. I shall return to the reception of Zahrtmann\u2019s subversive narratives in a little while; for now, it is time for some reflection on Kristian Zahrtmann\u2019s late and very queer work as statement and expression.<\/p>\n

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Fig. 5.<\/strong> Zahrtmann painted two versions of Prometheus. The first one from 1904 measures 102 x 160 cm and was sold on Sotheby’s in New York, 16 February 1995, lot 81A. This in the second and smaller painting from 1906. Kristian Zahrtmann:\u00a0Prometheus<\/em>, 1906. Oil on canvas, 44 x 66 cm. Private collection, Sebastian Swane. Foto: \u00a9 Lauritz.com.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Queer Zahrtmann<\/h2>\n

By the anniversary year of 1913, Zahrtmann had already painted and exhibited a number of works where hints and allusions were growing more overtly homoerotic. The display of Prometheus<\/em> [fig.5] at Den frie Udstilling in 1904 can be regarded as an intentional turning point \u2013 signalling a change of direction to those in the know \u2013 outlining a new, more obviously queer direction in Zahrtmann\u2019s art in public. The work itself quite deliberately builds on a well-known, mythological motif that lends itself well to being inserted into various situations; for example, the exuberant reception of artist Carl Bloch\u2019s version from 1865 saw the chained Prometheus as an allegory of Denmark\u2019s loss of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.Statens Museum for Kunst Journal<\/em>, 1999, pp. 42-69.\n\">21<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Like almost all of Zahrtmann\u2019s queer works, his take on the theme also seeks some kind of shelter under the shield of tradition \u2013 its aegis<\/em>Tradition and Desire: From David to Delacroix<\/em>, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,1984, pp. 44-5.\n\">22<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0\u00ad\u2013 in order to carry out a deliberate processing and updating of tradition, a kind of twisting or queering of something pre-existing: Here is my version<\/em>. In contrast to Bloch\u2019s very well-known painting, Zahrtmann\u2019s version does not have a dramatic, resolved narrative. Instead, his Prometheus<\/em> draws on centuries of depictions of passively lounging, sensual female bodies, using a veneer of mythological respectability to invite a gaze full of desire and pleasure.The Female Nude: Art, Obscenity and Sexuality<\/em>, Routledge, London og New York 1992; see also Abigail Solomon-Godeau: Male Trouble: A Crisis in Representation<\/em>, Thames &amp; Hudson, London 1999.\n\">23<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In the hands of Zahrtmann, Prometheus becomes an erotic narrative. Given that the nature and character of the artist himself is so central to the assessments of art made around this time, Zahrtmann himself becomes a framework through which his 1904 Prometheus<\/em> can also be understood: the position assigned to the observer becomes homoerotic because it is implicitly the point of view of another man, and because the narrative and mythological aspects fall away. The suffering one senses might potentially be inflicted by the vast eagle, the overemphasised chains and the hard rocks only serve to heighten the titillating effect of the painting and its \u2018dangerous\u2019 hints of sadomasochist dominance.<\/p>\n

Fig. 6.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: Loki<\/em>, 1912. Oil on canvas, 101 x 81 cm. Private collection. Photo: \u00a9 Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Exhibition history should be recognised as a key aspect of the overall effect and impact of Zahrtmann\u2019s art. \u00a0It would appear that Prometheus<\/em> is exhibited at a propitious time \u2013 Zahrtmann is highly acclaimed, financially secure and firmly embedded in many networksHandbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education<\/em>, Greenwood Press, New York, pp. 241&ndash;58; Bruno Latour: Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory<\/em>, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York 2005.\n\">24<\/a><\/sup>\u2013 and upon being presented at Den frie Udstilling in the spring of 1904, the work stands out among a range of the artist\u2019s less important Italian scenes.Fortegnelse over Kunstv\u00e6rkerne p\u00e5 Den frie Udstilling 1904<\/em>, Den frie Udstilling, Copenhagen 1904.\n\">25<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0This is to say that the artist mobilises his considerable public esteem to promote a painting that might <\/em>be controversial, not least because it also affects the general perception of the rest of his art: being familiar with Prometheus<\/em> or subsequent erotic works such as Loki<\/em> from 1912 [fig.6]<\/strong> and Adam<\/em> from 1914 [fig.7]<\/strong> has a reverse knock-on effect: knowing about these works, all of Zahrtmann\u2019s preceding oeuvre can at any time be seen as latently other <\/em>than what it appears \u2013 as queer<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For these purposes, I regard the term \u2018queer\u2019 as more than simply another word for \u2018homosexuality\u2019 and homosexual desire. Queer is also a verb, an act \u2013 to<\/em> queer. \u2018[\u2026] queer can be used as a verb, that is, to describe a process, a movement between viewer, text, and world, that reinscribes (or queers) each and the relations between them\u2019.A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory<\/em>, New York University Press, New York 2003, p. 192.\n\">26<\/a><\/sup>Today, queer theory is an umbrella term used to describe many different perspectives, not all of them compatible. It is difficult to do any of these justice through a simple summary, but this does not exempt one from accounting for one\u2019s own position: Thus, I argue \u2013 based on my limited and localised knowledge \u2013 in favour of two different queer theoretical angles on Zahrtmann\u2019s art simultaneously. A number of his works show homosexual motifs and themes \u2013 these concern the idea of queer as category and identity. At the same time, a larger quantity of works is involved in undermining norms, confusing us and offering alternative readings, which often, but not always, deal with gender, identity and desire \u2013 these concern queering as process and action. As will become apparent later on, Zahrtmann labours to create a place, in his life and in his art, which can both accommodate<\/em> queer identity and which is<\/em> queer in its indeterminate latency.<\/p>\n

Fig. 7.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: Adam in Paradise<\/em>, 1914. Oil on canvas, 124 x 104 cm. Private collection. Photo: \u00a9 Ole Akh\u00f8j<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ability to freely explore Zahrtmann\u2019s substantial body of work \u2013 his biographer, Danneskjold-Sams\u00f8e, lists a total of 1,216 paintings and larger drawings \u2013 for all things different, queer and contrary to habitual ideas of gender, is partly a modern skill.\u00a0 Today, we are prepped (perhaps excessively so) to look for sexual meaning and content in images and to deconstruct works in order to search for the parodic and the self-contradictory.Public Indecency: Portrait of an X<\/em>, in Clare Barlow (ed.): Queer British Art<\/em>, Tate Publishing, London 2017, p. 49.\n\">27<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Given this present-day perspective, we may be puzzled by the general tendency among observers in his own day to ignore or overlook what seem to us obvious themes in Zahrtmann\u2019s art \u2013 both before and after Prometheus<\/em> \u2013 but what appears overtly, even glaringly visible to us may then have been mere hints, a code to be deciphered by those who, based on their own experiences, could \u2018read between the lines\u2019.<\/p>\n

One example would be Loki<\/em> from 1912, a painting which appears blatantly erotic and gay from a present-day perspective: the black-haired, olive-skinned, physically fit model looks smilingly to one side, suggestively holding his lethal mistletoe. The forking branches that serve as his seat and the natural scenery around him create an intimate, cave-like feel, and the clearly differentiated surfaces \u2013 a Zahrtmann speciality \u2013 activate a tactile, sensuous gaze. In terms of iconography, decoding the scene requires familiarity with the myth of the death of Balder from The Younger Edda<\/em>, in which the \u2018light\u2019 god dies from a (penetrating) arrow shot due to the scheming of the \u2018dark\u2019 god.Snorris Edda<\/em>, Gyldendal, Copenhagen 2013.\n\">28<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The painting is redolent with sultry seductiveness and dangerous sexuality. And when, in 1912, it was hung at Den frie Udstilling alongside works such as Grief,<\/em> 1911 [fig.8]<\/strong>, it prompted a kind of transference \u2013 the Loki <\/em>scene becomes \u2018contagious\u2019, it goes \u2018epidemic\u2019 or \u2018viral\u2019.Travelling Concepts for the Humanities<\/em>: A Rough Guide<\/em>, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Buffalo and New York 2002, pp. 32&ndash;34.\n\">29<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0What is queer in a strictly categorial sense \u2013 the gay image of Loki \u2013 also queers <\/em>something through its action, thereby challenging and rewriting expectations. One suddenly suspects that the crouched-up figure in Grief <\/em>is too theatrical, the scene too blatant and vaguely parodic, or that Sofus Schandorph and Victor Emanuel<\/em> (current whereabouts unknown) depicts more than simply an innocent meeting between two men, or that a range of other works mean more than they allow to show on the surface. Loki<\/em> augments or launches such queer readings \u2013 because the exhibition context and the proximity between works always contribute to, direct and create meaning.Thinking about Exhibitions<\/em>, Routledge, London and New York 1996, pp. 201&ndash;18.\n\">30<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Together, the works become too much<\/em>, they infect Zahrtmann\u2019s self-portrait and the other paintings at Den frie Udstilling in 1912, indeed, they can be said to suggest that one ought to reconfigure one\u2019s understanding of all <\/em>of Zahrtmann\u2019s work; and perhaps of him too while we\u2019re at it.<\/p>\n

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Fig. 8.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: Grief<\/em>, 1911. Oil on canvas, 58 x 52 cm. Whereabouts unknown. Photo: Mette Thelle (ed.): Kristian Zahrtmann<\/em>, Storstr\u00f8ms Kunstmuseum, Bornholms Kunstmuseum, Fyns Kunstmuseum and Bornholms Museumsforening 1999.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Fig. 13.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: The Prodigal Son<\/em>, 1909. Oil on canvas, 63 x 84 cm. HHGSA Collection. Photo: \u00a9 Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The reception of queer Zahrtmann in his own day<\/h2>\n

Of course, ascertaining how the various audiences of the day actually responded to the queer aspects of Zahrtmann\u2019s painting as presented at, for example, Den frie Udstilling in 1912, is subject to considerable obstacles, but new works from his hand would routinely have reached a very wide audience \u2013 through popular exhibitions and through illustrations in newspapers.31<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Empirical evidence of historical reception is typically highly mediated; it mainly involves critics and reviewers speaking. By its very nature, the reception of all things contrary, merely hinted at and partially subversive, will be passed down less clearly. Nevertheless, there is something to be gained from a careful, interpretative approach where we read the works concurrently with what was written about them in their day. Such critical readings cannot reconstruct the past, but they can \u2018archeologically\u2019 expose a space of (likely) scenarios:Diskursive analysestrategier: Foucault, Koselleck, Laclau, Luhmann<\/em>, Nyt fra Samfundsvidenskaberne, Copenhagen 1999; Michel Foucault, Vidensark\u00e6ologien<\/em>, Philosophia 2005 [1969].\n\">32<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0What might<\/em> people see, think and say about Zahrtmann\u2019s work; what \u2018codes\u2019 might they draw on?<\/p>\n

Fig. 9.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: Susanna at Her Bath<\/em>, 1907. Oil on canvas, 84 x 102 cm. Private collection. Photo: \u00a9 Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the above, I have argued that at Kristian Zahrtmann\u2019s time, art criticism would mostly understand art based on an empathy with and sensitivity to character<\/em> \u2013 the artist\u2019s and\/or the work\u2019s \u2013 and that in practice, this led to artistic judgments based on how that character resonated with the critic\u2019s<\/em> own character, his own experiences and values. Thus, art appreciation came to be about brief, rapidly made assessments that relied strongly on the viewer\u2019s self-image and pre-formed opinions. Such assessments reflect the viewer’s personality and horizon \u2013 who he or she is \u2013 which in turn makes viewers very careful about what they say. It is important to note the crucial difference between this approach and the historically aware, interpretive and contextualising methods that prevail today, methods which arise out of a fundamentally different view of art as a learning space.<\/p>\n

To illustrate the question of what observers could see and allow themselves to talk about, critics and allies alike were, as was mentioned above, keen to point out the \u2018paradox\u2019 of Zahrtmann\u2019s art and person. Seen from a present-day perspective, this could<\/em> be interpreted as sensitivity to the processually \u2018offbeat\u2019, parodic and queer aspect that we now find so obvious in many of his artworks. However, using concepts such as \u2018paradox\u2019 may also denote an unwillingness to speak openly about the confusing topics and explicitly erotic images produced by Zahrtmann\u2019s hand from around the time of Prometheus<\/em> onwards; it may even take the form of a downright rejection made without mentioning the nub of the matter. Explicitly acknowledging the queer and homoerotic aspects of Zahrtmann\u2019s imagery might backfire on the critic himself \u2013 \u2018it takes one to know one\u2019. Thus, a smaller group of critics distanced themselves from Zahrtmann\u2019s art through gendered and sexualized terms without a clear addressee, for example when appraising the image of Loki: \u2018One is growing increasingly weary of these well-formed male model studies, which, clad in jewelled fripperies, adorn themselves with the most exalted of mythological names\u2019.Riget<\/em>, 23 March 1912.\n\">33<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Other critics drop hints or adopt an ironic distance that may easily prompt well-informed present-day readers to wonder just how much<\/em> and what <\/em>they see:<\/p>\n

Fig. 10.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: Queen Christina in the Palazzo Corsini<\/em>, 1908. Oil on canvas, 105 x 150 cm. SMK \u2013 National Gallery of Denmark, inv. no. KMS7961. Photo: Public Domain, www.smk.dk<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Zahrtmann\u2019s Loki is technically brilliant: a superbly modelled and elegantly painted study of a male nude, limber and crowned by a headpiece, testing a twig of mistletoe for its suitability as an arrow while his effeminate gaze is distant and dreamy, perhaps plotting the next steps in furthering his intentions. The scene is set in a strange, fungoid, toxic forest landscape with lighting to match, and while one is not entirely satisfied with this perception of the Loki figure, it is by no means far off the mark, mischievous and sly as he is<\/em>.<\/em>Aarhus Stiftstidende<\/em>, 4 April 1912. The critic &lsquo;H&rsquo; offers this supplementary description of Loke: &lsquo;Wearing a sly expression underneath with brow with the bluish-black hair, reminiscent of a woman&rsquo;s, he tests the branch for suppleness&rsquo;. H: &lsquo;Den fri Udstilling&rsquo;, Sor\u00f8 Amtstidende<\/em> or Slagelse Avi<\/em>s, 23 March 1912.\n\">34<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

When comparing various pieces of criticism of Zahrtmann\u2019s works voiced at the time, we see that there are plenty of examples of how the works are actually perceived as <\/em>queer, prompting three possible responses: (a) ignoring, (b) rejecting or (c) playfully hinting at their queerness. The latter happened surprisingly frequently, as in the reviews of Zahrtmann\u2019s Adam<\/em> from 1913\u201314. Using the rather more telling alternative title of the work \u2013 Adam Bored in the Garden of Eden <\/em>\u2013 a critic writing in Hovedstaden<\/em> points out that the \u2018reading\u2019 of the work depends on the observer\u2019s ability to decipher it:<\/p>\n

It will nevertheless attract colossal attention due to the nature of its subject. Our Biblical ancestor is portrayed as a fair, slim youth of glorious physique. He is, of course, naked, and all around him the lush, brightly coloured flowers and foliage of Paradise rise up abundantly in radiant Zahrtmannesque colours. But Adam looks melancholy. For what is he yearning? And where is Eva? Why is he bored? The mischievous old Master gives no answer. The solution to the riddle is for the viewer to find! Why not take a guess yourself<\/em>.<\/em>Hovedstaden<\/em>, 12 November 1913.\n\">35<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Fig. 11.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: Fenja and Menja in Chains Grinding Gold for Frode Fredegod<\/em>, 1906. Oil on canvas, 141 x 107 cm. Private collection. Photo: \u00a9 Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At Den frie Udstilling in 1914, Adam<\/em> is exhibited amidst a selection of approximately fifty works spanning all of Zahrtmann\u2019s career. Once again, the exceedingly queer painting cannot help but \u2018infect\u2019 everything around it. However, one outraged letter to the editor printed in K\u00f8benhavn<\/em> misunderstands the intended audience of the painting, expressing regret at how \u2018 [\u2026] young girls <\/em>absolutely cannot be seen [\u2026]\u2019 to be visiting the exhibition (my emphasis).K\u00f8benhavn<\/em>, 14 April 1914.\n\">36<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Other critics write \u2013 in more or less roundabout, in-the-know ways \u2013 up against the queerness of the work, creating a kind of reception that dares not speak its name: unable to overtly reveal what the critic knows, it becomes queer itself in its own paradoxicality<\/em>:<\/p>\n

However, his ideas can also occasionally be infused by a certain degree of youthful levity. Take this \u2018Adam\u2019, for example. We recollect that the serpent came into his life before he came to eat his bread \u2018by the sweat of his brow\u2019. Yet this athlete seems to have been shaped by much toil. \u2013 look at the build of his legs \u2013 his hands, accustomed to manual labour \u2013 the muscles of his neck! And we have learned that the serpent coiled around the trunk of tree, and that Eve was there, and, suspecting that this is a puzzle picture, we search for her among the voluptuous aralia, cannas, chrysanthemums and bananas. Perhaps the scene depicts a subsequent meeting with the serpent \u2013 it might look as if it and Adam were discussing the Fall and its consequences. Unless the serpent symbolises \u2013 Eve!<\/em>Hver 8. Dag<\/em>, 12 April 1914, p. 872.\n\">37<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Looking at Zahrtmann\u2019s paintings from 1904 onwards is to see another place opening up \u2013 a realm of beautiful, physically fit men who parade themselves for our viewing pleasure: Nero <\/em>(1903), Prometheus <\/em>(1904), Loke <\/em>(1912), Adam <\/em>(1914), A Victor<\/em> (1915). A realm where gender roles are challenged: Susannah and the Elders<\/em> (1906-07), Queen Christina in the Palazzo Corsini<\/em> (1908) [fig.9-10]<\/strong>. And a world where sexuality is queered: Fenja and Menja in Chains Grinding Gold for Frode Fredegod<\/em> (1906), Socrates and Alcibiades<\/em> (1907 and 1911), The Prodigal Son<\/em> (1906\u201309), Milk Test <\/em>(1912\u201313) [fig.11-13]<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Fig. 12. <\/strong>Kristian Zahrtmann: Socrates and Alcibiades<\/em>, 1911. Oil on canvas, 36.8 x 37 cm. SMK \u2013 National Gallery of Denmark, inv. no. KMS8219. Photo: Public Domain, www.smk.dk<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This world is a place capable of accommodating several kinds of desires, it offers itself up as a colourful alternative to the grey and boring everyday city life of Copenhagen, and it brings warmth, intimacy and sensuality to the fore. But it is also a world and a place to which access is restricted: it presupposes an implicit sympathy \u2013 an element of complicit co-creation. Given the restrictive norms of the age, including its tendencies to oppress minorities, it is hardly surprising that many of Zahrtmann\u2019s queer paintings are painted with a sense of parody and paradox quivering right at the tip of the brush. In those cases where things are becoming too clear, or too peculiar, friends and allies step in to smooth things over, insisting that nothing is meant in earnest, it is just a bit of fun [fig.14-15]<\/strong>. Indeed, believing anything else, accepting the images at face value would reflect badly on any defenders \u2013 perhaps putting their <\/em>\u2018character\u2019 in an unflattering light.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Fig. 14.<\/strong> Page from the satirical weekly magazine Klods-Hans<\/em>, published 6 May 1907. Top: \u201cI always use only male models, even for female figures. \u2013 Kr. Zahrtmann\u201d. Bottom: \u201cRealism in art. Tomorrow you will have to shave, Jensen, because you are going to be the model for Venus.\u201d Alfred Schmidt, Realism in Art<\/em>, from Klods-Hans<\/em>, 1907, p. 488. Photo: \u00a9 Royal Library of Denmark.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Fig. 15.<\/strong> Alfred Schmidt, Reconstruction of Historic Paintings, freely after Zahrtmann\u2019s Susanna at Her Bath<\/em>, from Klods-Hans<\/em>, 1907, p. 466. Photo: \u00a9 Royal Library of Denmark.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Queering is a key element in Kristian Zahrtmann\u2019s art after Prometheus<\/em>; certainly when observed from our present-day privileged vantage point. Nothing in Zahrtmann\u2019s extensive production pretends to be anything other than constructs, and he himself creates on the basis of a selective, artistic tradition \u2013 he is no naturalist. Ever since the 1860s, his art represents an elaborate dream of being able to enter other worlds, regardless of whether those places reside in the past, in the imagination or simply hidden behind curtains and closed doors. The dream of such a more accommodating place, its possibility subtly hinted at, is a particularly characteristic trait of Zahrtmann\u2019s queer art; it is also a general recurring trope of centuries of queer art.Art and Homosexuality: A History of Ideas<\/em>. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2011.\n\">38<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0One may reasonably say that his body of work possesses a certain queer processuality <\/em>insofar as it renders possible the dream of another world that strives to evade the narrow confines of accepted norms. More on this later.<\/p>\n

The overall perception of Zahrtmann in art history and posterity<\/h2>\n

In its appreciation of Kristian Zahrtmann as a person and as an artist, posterity has had few positive things to say about his queer project \u2013 it has been passed by in silence, or his queer paintings have been dismissed as bad art compared to his \u2018healthy\u2019 main masterpieces.Kristian Zahrtmann. En homoseksuel kunstneridentitet i Danmark omkring \u00e5rhundredeskiftet og den kunstneriske fremstilling af homoseksualiteten i Nordeuropa<\/em>, master&rsquo;s thesis, University of Copenhagen, 1993, p. 13-27.\n\">39<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The general plurality seen in the reception of any artist through a succession of exhibitions, media coverage and art criticism typically disappears when the posthumous story of an artist is written. In the case of Zahrtmann, as for so many others, this narrative is made \u2018art historical\u2019, complete with all the associated stylistic flourishes and emphases on some matters over others, and it is written by people who are so sympathetic towards the artist \u2013 why else embark on such a project? \u2013 that they downplay all the awkward and challenging parts.40<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0As a discipline, art history tends towards streamlining and imposing consistency on the link between life and work.The Art Bulletin<\/em>, no. 2, 1991, the section on &lsquo;Senders&rsquo;, pp. 180&ndash;84; Catherine M. Souloff: The Absolute Artist: Historiography of a Concept<\/em>, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis and London 1997.\n\">41<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The trend is clearly evident in the case of Kristian Zahrtmann, but does nothing to further our understanding of his complex, diverse, pluralistic production.<\/p>\n

The foundations of the image of Zahrtmann presented in connection with his seventieth birthday were laid down at an early stage. In 1885, the art historian and later director of the National Gallery of Denmark, Karl Madsen, wrote a long article about Zahrtmann as a painter of \u2018universally human, spiritual matters\u2019 and as a \u2018psychological history painter\u2019, all while focusing on his depictions of Leonora Christina. The article reaffirms a particular view of Zahrtmann\u2019s art that becomes prevalent not just in academic circles, but among larger audiences too: he is seen as a seeker of truth, non-idealising, and founded in a total identification with his chosen subject matter and the psychological space he conjures up.Kristian Zahrtmann<\/em>, in Kunst<\/em> IV, 1902.\n\">42<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The art collector H. Chr. Christensen, who published inventories of the oeuvres of key Danish artists, also worked with Zahrtmann on charting his life\u2019s work while the artist was still alive.Kristian Zahrtmann. 31 marts 1843 &ndash; 22 juni 1917. Fortegnelse over hans Malerier<\/em>. U.u. Copenhagen 1917.\n\">43<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Two years after the death of Zahrtmann, the printer and publisher F. Hendriksen published a large commemorative book, Mindebog<\/em>, featuring a selection of Zahrtmann\u2019s letters, carefully edited by his family, as well as various memoirs and recollections of his published through the years.Kristian Zahrtmann: 1843 31. marts &ndash; 22. juni 1917: En Mindebog bygget over egne Optegnelser og Breve fra og til ham<\/em>, F. Hendriksen, Copenhagen 1919.\n\">44<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0In 1942, Sophus Danneskjold-Sams\u00f8e publishes a large monograph and inventory of the artist\u2019s work, placing emphasis on formal artistic traits such as colour, mode of expression, composition and earnest empathy with the chosen subject matter, privileging Zahrtmann\u2019s efforts as a history painter and a portrayer of Italy.Kristian Zahrtmann<\/em>. Rasmus Navers Forlag, Copenhagen 1942.\n\">45<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0By this time, Zahrtmann (and his mother!) remained sufficiently popular with the general public to make him the subject of a special Sunday supplement to the newspaper Berlingske Tidende.Berlingske Illustreret Tidende<\/em>, no. 47, 22 november 1942.\n\">46<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

In 1979, the general interest in Zahrtmann as an educator is revived with Hanne Honnens de Lichtenberg\u2019s Zahrtmanns skole<\/em>, a book which draws partly on his letters, partly on his pupils\u2019 memories. Seen from this later vantage point, Zahrtmann\u2019s efforts as a teacher are regarded as \u2018a significant precondition of the breakthrough of modern painting in Denmark\u2019.47<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The established approach to Zahrtmann\u2019s production, evident in newspapers in 1913 and as far back as Madsen\u2019s 1885 article, is continued, with emphasis on various particular traits, in exhibitions and accompanying publications on his images of Leonora Christina and Italian scenes,Zahrtmann og Leonora.<\/em> Randers Kunstmuseum 1984; Annette Stabell: Civita d&rsquo;Antino: Zahrtmanns by i Italien.<\/em> Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen 1989; Gianluca Chelucci, Chiara d&rsquo;Afflitto and Lars Kj\u00e6rulf M\u00f8ller: Kristian Zahrtmann og Det mystiske Bryllup i Pistoja<\/em>, Maschietto editore, Florence 2003.\n\">48<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0and in a large monographic exhibition in 1999.Kristian Zahrtmann<\/em>, Storstr\u00f8ms Kunstmuseum, Bornholms Kunstmuseum, Fyns Kunstmuseum and Bornholms Museumsforening 1999.\n\">49<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Examples of this traditional reception of Zahrtmann, omitting his queer project, can be found as late as in 2006 in the exhibition catalogue \u00c6re v\u00e6re Leonora <\/em>(no English title).\u00c6re v\u00e6re Leonora. <\/em>Kristian Zahrtmann og Leonora Christina<\/em>, The Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen 2006.\n\">50<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Zahrtmann is still primarily regarded as a history painter specialising in the story of Leonora Christina and in Italian folk scenes \u2013 or as an educator acting as a helpmeet to subsequent generations of Danish art.<\/p>\n

Concurrently with this, work was also being done outside the museum institution which actually pointed in another direction, specifically Morten Steen Hansen\u2019s pioneering, but unpublished research thesis from 1993, Kristian Zahrtmann. En homoseksuel kunstneridentitet i Danmark omkring \u00e5rhundredeskiftet og den kunstneriske fremstilling af homoseksualiteten i Nordeuropa <\/em>(Kristian Zahrtmann. A homosexual artist\u2019s identity in Denmark around the turn of the century and artistic depictions of homosexuality in Northern Europe).Varia,<\/em> I, 1991, pp. 22&ndash;33.\n\">51<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Hansen\u2019s brief thesis connects parts of Zahrtmann\u2019s work with homosexual culture and imagery in Denmark and Europe, presenting a range of very compelling analyses of his art. Critical of a Freudian approach to Zahrtmann, Hansen instead focuses on the artist\u2019s practices<\/em>, which can be interpreted in terms of a homosexual identity in keeping with his time \u2013 examples include the fondness for exclusively male communities, particular clothes\/costumes and home d\u00e9cor \u2013 and how he is perceived by media and the public, where images and reviews describe him in terms of femininely coded signifiers. Hansen\u2019s thesis interprets aspects of Zahrtmann\u2019s life and work in a productive dialogue with sexuality, gender and history without reducing or essentialising any of these aspects.<\/p>\n

The perspectives pioneered by Morten Steen Hansen are summarised and elaborated on in an article and, later, a quite small themed display with no accompanying catalogue called Fokus p\u00e5 Zahrtmann. Kroppen og historien<\/em> (Focus on Zahrtmann. Body and History) at the National Gallery of Denmark in 2002.Periskop<\/em>, no. 4, 1995; &lsquo;Fokus p\u00e5 Zahrtmann. Kroppen og historien&rsquo;, exhibition 29 June &ndash; 10 November 2002, The National Gallery of Denmark.&nbsp;[Accessed 1 April 2019:] https:\/\/www.smk.dk\/exhibition\/udstillinger-2002\n\">52<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The year before, the museum acquired Socrates and Alcibiades<\/em> from 1911, one of the first explicitly queer works by the artist in public ownership. \u00a0A lull follows until 2011, at which point Louise Wolthers, taking her point of departure in the same museum and a rehang of the collection, is the first scholar to undertake an assessment of Zahrtmann that explicitly announces itself to be based on queer theory.Konsthistorisk tidskrift\/Journal of Art History<\/em>, 80:3, pp. 139&ndash;52.\n\">53<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Steen Hansen\u2019s rethinking of Zahrtmann takes place at a time when queer theory and theories of performativity are still in their infancy \u2013 Judith Butler\u2019s seminal Gender Trouble<\/em> was published in 1990 \u2013 and in Denmark, art history studies have barely begun working with poststructuralism, which later became such a major influence. Perhaps the effort was made too soon<\/em> to have real impact? The majority of Danish museum exhibitions and the research conducted as part of them offer little or no productive reassessment of Kristian Zahrtmann\u2019s life and work, a fact which reveals a thought-provoking inertia within Danish art history. One might tentatively take the view that in recent years, Danish museum-based art historians have \u2018inherited\u2019 the fear of recognising Zahrtmann\u2019s queer project from the older reception of his work, and also that a long-gone social <\/em>fear of grappling with the issue continues to live on in an institutional<\/em> lack of ability and wish to engage oneself in this project.<\/p>\n

As the \u2018new museology\u2019 movement of the 1990s has gained ground in wider circles, harsh critique of power has been supplemented by the museums\u2019 and authorities\u2019 own, softer discussion of their responsibilities in terms of developing tolerance, citizenship, knowledge and new insights in all of us.Rum for medborgerskab<\/em>, Statens Museum for Kunst 2014; Ida Br\u00e6ndholt Lundgaad and Jacob Thorek Jensen (eds.): Museums, knowledge, democracy, transformation<\/em>, Kulturstyrelsen 2014.\n\">54<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Regardless of the specific values prioritised at any given time, there has been a gradual shift from authoritative one-way communication to a more constructivist understanding of how insight is created in the meeting between audience, art and institution. This also means that the museum institution must speak with<\/em> its recipients based on their<\/em> backgrounds, interests and life experiences.International Journal of Heritage Studies<\/em>, 1, 2000, pp. 9-31.\n\">55<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0For the same simple reason, it makes no sense today to omit or overlook a significant part of Kristian Zahrtmann’s project; quite the contrary, it makes perfect sense to emphasise an early queer artist\u2019s work for the benefit of a diverse audience. Returning to the project at hand, Zahrtmann\u2019s work to conjure up another world and his quest for a place<\/em> for as-yet unspoken opportunities seems most relevant here<\/p>\n

\"\"
Fig. 16.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann surrounded by artworks, fabrics, furniture and plants in his in the villa Casa d\u2019Antino, about 1912-17. Bornholms Museum. Photo: \u00a9 Unknown artist\/VISDA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Fig. 17.<\/strong> View from Zahrtmannss studio-cum-parlour toward the dining room in Casa d\u2019Antino about 1915-17. The Hirschsprung Collection. Photo: \u00a9 Unknown artist\/VISDA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At home with Zahrtmann<\/h2>\n

In connection with the celebrations of Zahrtmann\u2019s birthday, one specific place attracted particular attention in the press \u2013 his home in his villa, Casa d\u2019Antino [figs.16\u201317]<\/strong>. Articles and illustrated pieces spoke about visits to the artist\u2019s home, letting the house, its d\u00e9cor, the studio-cum-parlour and the garden amalgamate with Kristian Zahrtmann the man to form a total portrait.Berlingske Tidende<\/em>, 14 January 1913; Helge Wamberg: &lsquo;Zahrtmann i eget Hus&rsquo;, Verden og Vi<\/em>, no. 3, 1913; Harald Moltke: &lsquo;Min Nabo Zahrtmann&rsquo;, Nationaltidende<\/em>, 31 March 1913; Helge Wamberg: &lsquo;Hos Zahrtmann i hans Hus&rsquo;, Aftenposten <\/em>[Danish newspaper], 31 March 1913; Emma Kraft: &lsquo;Paa Bes\u00f8g hos Kristian Zahrtmann&rsquo;, Hus og Hjem<\/em>, no. 14, 1913.\n\">56<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Several of his students\u2019 portraits of him \u2018at home\u2019 were also reproduced.Illustreret Tidende, <\/em>no. 26, 1913, &lsquo;Hilsen og Hyldest til Zahrtmann&rsquo;.\n\">57<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Prior to this, Zahrtmann had already introduced the themes of home and studio in his own art [figs.18\u201320]<\/strong> \u2013 sometimes indirectly, as in paintings such as the Biblical narrative about The Prodigal Son<\/em>, 1906\u201309, which is set in his home in Amaliegade and was shown at Den frie Udstilling in 1909.Fortegnelse over Kunstv\u00e6rkerne paa Den frie Udstilling 1909,<\/em> Den frie Udstilling 1909.\n\">58<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Fig. 18.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: Interior with plaster bust of Empress Frederick<\/em>, 1909. Oil on canvas, 58 x 70 cm. Private collection. Photo: \u00a9 Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a generous, willing host and interviewee, Zahrtmann co-authors the persona created by media portraits of the artist and his home, working in concord with his own paintings. Zahrtmann is performed <\/em>and mediated via the press and via exhibitions of his paintings \u2013 he contributes to the production of postcards and photographs of himself in his home, and he has enough celebrity clout to be \u2018pinned in place\u2019 by Politiken in 1913 by being filmed at Casa d\u2019Antino.Viden om film<\/em>. [Accessed 3 April 2019:] https:\/\/www.dfi.dk\/viden-om-film\/filmdatabasen\/film\/maleren-kristian-zahrtman-i-sit-atelier\n\">59<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Throughout his career, and increasingly after 1900, Zahrtmann placed his own furniture, costumes, fabrics and objets d\u2019art in his history paintings. For those in the know, these objects may introduce a discordant note, a kind of creative disruption that identifies the image as being produced in the here and now \u2013 art historian Karl Madsen was among the first to remark on deliberately anachronistic features in Zahrtmann\u2019s art60<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0\u2013 but they also become signs of Zahrtmann the person by dint of his ownership. This is to say that the artist has a dual presence in these paintings, partly through the index of the clear signatures, and <\/em>partly through the metonymic references made by the objects depicted.<\/p>\n

Fig. 19.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: The Artist\u2019s Studio in Amaliegade, Copenhagen<\/em>, 1909. Oil on canvas, 72 x 90.5 cm. Bornholm Art Museum, inv. no. 375×18. Photo: \u00a9 Simon Lautrop.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Paintings such as The Prodigal Son<\/em> and the genre fantasy In the Sacristy<\/em> 1913, [fig.21]<\/strong> see the theme further developed, setting the scenes in surroundings that resemble Zahrtmann\u2019s combined home and studio. As Rikke Zinck Jensen says, Zahrtmann\u2019s history paintings tend to take place in enclosed spaces \u2013 as if on a stage \u2013 a point which she links to Zahrtmann\u2019s queering of gender conventions where the \u2018natural\u2019 expectations regarding masculinity and femininity are challenged and shown to be constructs.Perspective<\/em>&nbsp;, July 2019:&nbsp;https:\/\/www.perspectivejournal.dk\/en\/alternative-female-roles-history-paintings-kristian-zahrtmann<\/a>\n&nbsp;\n\">61<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

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Fig. 20.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: My Dinner Table<\/em>, 1914. Oil on canvas, 82 x 88.5 cm. Bornholm Art Museum, inv. no. 375×59. Photo: \u00a9 Bornholm Art Museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Fig. 21.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: In the Sacristi<\/em>, 1913. Oil on canvas, 66 x 82 cm. Private collection. Photo: \u00a9 Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Building on this analysis, one may say that the challenge of conventions is increasingly set against a backdrop of home \u2013<\/em> specifically one that looks like Zahrtmann\u2019s <\/em>home \u2013 which accordingly becomes one of the key referents of an increasingly queer artistic practice. And, as I shall argue in a moment, around the year 1900 the idea of home is pregnant with meaning, both ideologically and artistically.<\/p>\n

Zahrtmann moves into Casa d\u2019Antino, a villa he himself had built, in November 1912.62<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The media report this event as a kind of ultimate fruition, of things coming together, describing how well the setting of his new life reflects him as a person. The latent conflation, always looming in the background of media reports, between Zahrtmann and the historic figure of Leonora Christina can be said to be brought to a head by the artist himself when, in 1914, he paints her in Casa d\u2019Antino, using it as a stand-in for the convent in Maribo that served as her home upon her release from captivity. In Zahrtmann\u2019s hands, the life of Leonora is presented as a kind of hagiography, a biography of a saint, ending with a variant of transcendence as she is set free from prison. It is tempting to see this as an example of Zahrtmann painting himself (by proxy) in his new home, reading the Holy Scriptures \u2013 a metaphor of being free, liberated, freshly elevated to a new and spiritual level of existence. Regardless of the exact angle adopted, it is difficult not to see something quite significant in Zahrtmann\u2019s use of his home and his belongings as references.<\/p>\n

In his article on Kristian Zahrtmann, Plato’s Symposium<\/em> and Zahrtmann\u2019s two paintings of Socrates and Alcibiades, Michael Hatt analyses how the artist strives, in his art, to develop a homosexual identity as a third way between vitalism and decadence. Around this time, the possible homosexual and queer identities are poised somewhere between medical definitions and criminal prosecution, outrage and disgust expressed in media and mass meetings, and a few, more or less public queer people, such as the author Herman Bang or the poet Walt Whitman, who represent something positive, creative and self-determined.Perspective<\/em>&nbsp;, July 2019:&nbsp;https:\/\/www.perspectivejournal.dk\/en\/zahrtmanns-symposium-ethics-history-and-desire<\/a>\n&nbsp;\n\">63<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Referring to Jensen\u2019s and Hatt\u2019s articles on Zahrtmann, one might argue that Zahrtmann\u2019s paintings of strong and tragic female figures,Hjemmet<\/em>, 30 March 1913.\n\">64<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0his depictions of clergymen in prayer, his male nudes from the realms of literature and the imagination \u2013 all of these subjects form part of an identity-defining project: the portrayals of women present historical and fictional characters as trailblazers in which the observers may see themselves reflected as they wish, but which also challenge and subvert the general beliefs in \u2018natural\u2019 gender roles and standards for what it means to be a man or a woman. Other works, such as Socrates and Alcibiades<\/em>, A Victor<\/em> or his paintings of men lost in reading and contemplation [fig.22]<\/strong> offer different avenues of approach to creating a new, self-determined identity capable of accommodating spirit, body and (mainly homosexual) desire in new ways.\u00a0Hatt\u2019s and Jensen\u2019s articles delve into details to demonstrate that Zahrtmann is not just a painter of queer subjects, but in the process of building a queer and homosexual identity through deliberate challenges, development and construction.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Fig. 22.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: Interior with Young Man Reading<\/em>, 1912. Oil on canvas, 70 x 63 cm. Bornholm Art Museum, inv. no. 375×58. Photo: \u00a9 Bornholm Art Museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In an influential essay from 1996, \u2018Imminent Domain: Queer Space and the Built Environment\u2019, the art historian Christopher Reed highlights the crucial importance of space and place for queer identity.Art Journal<\/em>, vol. 55:4, pp. 64-70.
\n&nbsp;\n\">65<\/a><\/sup> Reed argues that historically, a struggle has been fought to create specific spaces where queer persons have been able to meet and express themselves \u2013 such as bars, clubs, societies and cruising scenes \u2013 but that the work to promote queer \u2018spatiality\u2019 should also be understood as work aimed at opening up new opportunities. \u2018Queer\u2019 denotes something that may <\/em>and can<\/em> take place somewhere, something that is more or less immanent and not necessarily manifest within a given space. Reed speaks primarily into an American context, centring on 1980s activism and efforts to carve out a space in the public urban space, and if one turns one\u2019s gaze towards the realities of Copenhagen around 1900, the potential <\/em>queer spaces are even more ephemeral and invisible: in public, they are limited to a few settings within the city where one could go in search of sex, and a number of homosocial communities in the form of clubs, societies and (Vitalist) sports. Kristian Zahrtmann\u2019s increasing use of references to his home points to that other place where queer identity can be formed and find expression. But he is not alone in using \u2018home\u2019 as the springboard of a sophisticated artistic project at this time.<\/p>\n

Zahrtmann, Hammersh\u00f8i and ‘home’<\/h2>\n

\u2018By some strange twist of fate, the paintings of Vilh. Hammersh\u00f8j and Kr. Zahrtmann have come to hang directly opposite one another\u2019,Dagens Nyheder<\/em>, 6 April 1891.\n\">66<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0states Dagens Nyheder<\/em> in 1891 in a review of the first instalment of Den frie Udstilling. Zahrtmann and Hammersh\u00f8i would continue to follow each other in exhibition contexts for the rest of their lives \u2013 often compared and often contrasted: \u2018[\u2026] the polar opposites of Danish painting: \u00a0Hammersh\u00f8j, abstainer from colour, and Zahrtmann, who sings its praises in the loudest tones imaginable\u2019.Aftenbladet<\/em>, 31 March 1891.\n\">67<\/a><\/sup>However, other reviewers also point towards a kinship that concerns a similar flair for composition,K\u00f8benhavn<\/em>, 14 April 1891.\n\">68<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0pointing out that both are \u2018masters of nuance\u2019.Lolland-Falsters Stiftstidende<\/em>, 28 March 1901.\n\">69<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0And comparisons yield up more than superficial insights: it is remarkable to see how two so obviously different artists both turn to planes of very tactile paint in order to create atmospheric interiors, and how both focus intensely on space, spatiality and pronounced tension between barriers and openings [fig.23]<\/strong>. Zahrtmann\u2019s interior scenes usually take their point of departure in established iconography \u2013 they use an existing narrative \u2013 which the painting\u2019s atmospheric interior transforms and makes the artist\u2019s own. By contrast, and in Modernist fashion, Hammersh\u00f8i abandons history painting, allowing the interior to become a narrative in its own right. A crucial shared trait for both artists, who were friends and part of the circle collaborating on Den frie Udstilling,Berlingske Tidende<\/em>, 14 February 1916.\n\">70<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0is the prominent use of one\u2019s own home \u2013 not as the basis for everyday realism or anecdotal scenes of family life, but as a framework for innovative artistic projects.<\/p>\n

Fig. 23.<\/strong> Vilhelm Hammersh\u00f8i: Interior with Young Man Reading<\/em>, 1898. Oil on canvas, 64.4 x 51.8 cm. The Hirschsprung Collection, inv. no. 147. Photo: Public Domain, The Hirschsprung Collection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Up through the nineteenth century, the concept of home had been the object of growing interest, and the notion of the \u2018home-like\u2019 took on strongly positive connotations.A history of private life, volume IV: From the fires of revolution to the Great War<\/em>, Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA 1990.\n\">71<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The rise of the bourgeoisie saw a concurrent gradual increase in the distinction between the private and the public, and the home became ideologically separate from what is \u2018out there\u2019, instead becoming the place you go in search of peace, recuperation and intimacy in order to be and become \u2018oneself\u2019.Den kultiverade m\u00e4nniskan<\/em>, Liber, Solna 1979.\n\">72<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Around 1900, greater emphasis is placed on how aesthetics, interior design and functionality affect and promote mental health, particularly by writers such as Ellen Key and Edith Wharton, who, like the greatest advocate of the practical villa, Hermann Muthesius, Modern Swedish Design: Three Founding Texts<\/em>, Museum of Modern Art, New York 2008 [1899], pp. 32&ndash;57; Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman Jr.: The Decoration of Houses<\/em>, B.J. Batsford, London 1898; Stanford Anderson: &lsquo;Introduction: Style-Architecture and Building-Art: Realist Architecture as the Vehicle for a Renewal of Culture&rsquo; in Hermann Muthesius: Style-Architecture and Building-Art: Transformations of Architecture in the Nineteenth Century and its Present Condition<\/em>, The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, Santa Monica, CA, pp. 1&ndash;43.\n\">73<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0drew inspiration from the English Arts and Crafts movement. \u00a0\u2018Interiors\u2019 and the decoration of the home is now seen as something other and more than a random setting, becoming regarded as an intimate reflection of the mind of its inhabitant \u00ad\u2013 there are reasons why modern psychology and perceptions of the individual arise in the drawing rooms of the haute bourgeoisie.The Emergence of the Interior: Architecture, Modernity, Domesticity<\/em>, Routledge, London and New York 2007.\n\">74<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

When Zahrtmann and Hammersh\u00f8i use their homes as recognisable points of reference, they very clearly build on the period\u2019s general views on the key importance of home in forming and reflecting identity and character. Generally speaking, those who painted interiors around this time express a certain tension between the concepts of the public and the private \u2013 if the world is a stage and the home is \u2018backstage\u2019,The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life<\/em>, Penguin Books, London 1990 [1959].\n\">75<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0where does this leave the artists\u2019 dramatic, even theatrical staging of their own home? Unlike fellow Scandinavian artists such as Carl Larsson and Peter Hansen, who mobilise the distinctive authenticity inherent in turning the private into something public, one cannot exactly describe the spaces depicted by Hammersh\u00f8i and Zahrtmann as settings of normative family life. Referencing a famous text by psychologist \u00a0Sigmund Freud, \u00a0Felix Kr\u00e4mer describes the interiors painted by a group of Modernist artists \u2013 including the quiet rooms evoked by Hammersh\u00f8i \u2013 as \u2018uncanny\u2019, in German unheimlich, <\/em>literally \u2018un-homelike\u2019. Such art challenges the idea, widespread at the time, of the home as a serene, unproblematic place, introducing aspects such as sexual tensions, uncertainty and veiled allusions.<\/p>\n

Fig. 24.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: At the Bible Table<\/em>, 1912. Oil on canvas, 64 x 55 cm. HHGSA Collection. Photo: \u00a9 Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The references to Hammersh\u00f8i \u2013 who has since become an artist with infinitely more prestige attached to his name \u2013 serve to make it clear that Zahrtmann\u2019s project is also not \u2018just\u2019 about a personal point of departure. Zahrtmann quite inevitably touches upon the ongoing discussions of his time about bourgeois morals, sexuality, coupledom, obligations and self-fulfilment, all of them rooted in the idea of home and the distinction between the private and the public. The one thing that Zahrtmann does differently is to express a coded desire for an entirely new identity beyond that of heterosexual norms: Michael Hatt analyses At the Bible Table<\/em> [fig.24]<\/strong> as a queer self-portrait,76<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0and a handful of other late paintings by Zahrtmann, such as his androgynous personification of Peace<\/em> in his studio, contribute to queering his entire home and persona to such an extent that they in turn \u2018infect\u2019 all <\/em>of Zahrtmann\u2019s pictures from his home: for example, it feels natural to see the two almost identical self-portraits from 1916\u00a0(Bornholm Art Museum) as inscribing Zahrtmann in<\/em> the queer space established in Zahrtmann\u2019s art; the backgrounds seen in his self-portraits hold several of his queer paintings. Pointing back to Christopher Reed, Zahrtmann succeeds in reaching beyond the realm of imagination to also find and create his own, actual place <\/em>\u2013 the home as a queer space capable of accommodating new, as yet unspoken opportunities.<\/p>\n

These as-yet-unspoken potentials unlocked by Zahrtmann\u2019s work on the domestic realm might also extend to the dream of coupledom and togetherness. The portrait of Kaj Dessau features Zahrtmann\u2019s distinctive and oft-reproduced folding screen embroidered with \u2018Sienese pages\u2019 in the backdrop [fig.25]<\/strong>, and a 1906 portrait of the art dealer Peter Magnussen is clearly set in Zahrtmann\u2019s home. However, the dream may be most clearly expressed in Interior with Young Man Reading <\/em>from 1912. The anonymous man is clearly very much \u2018at home\u2019 in these surroundings, which look startlingly similar to Zahrtmann\u2019s Amaliegade flat. The prominently placed bust of Socrates, whose sightline cuts across the painting and lands on the young reader, joins the centrally positioned painting of Prometheus<\/em> in prompting thoughts of a homoerotic relationship, possibly between an older, dominant man and a younger, passive recipient. The eagle\u2019s assault on the chained Prometheus suggests something violent and carnal, while the illuminated polar bear rug on the floor activates a tactile gaze, hinting at a rather softer fur on which to err and frolic. Encompassing all these elements, this small painting points to a dream of home as the setting of a relationship that can accommodate both sex and spiritual pursuits, possibly in the form of an older artist offering to \u2018educate\u2019 and \u2018form\u2019 a younger model. (One might wonder if this is the same beautiful, black-haired model that Zahrtmann used for Loki <\/em>and Loki Presenting the Mistletoe to the Allfather<\/em>)<\/p>\n

\"\"
Fig. 25.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: Portrait of Kaj Dessau<\/em>, 1916. Oil on canvas, 62 x 56 cm. Private collection. Photo: \u00a9 Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Zahrtmann\u2019s home-stead<\/h2>\n

Zahrtmann\u2019s persona cannot be separated from our experience of his works; he incorporates criss-crossing references to himself, to his dreams and to the home which, given his contemporaries\u2019 views of the private realm, must also be perceived as an extension and image of himself. Press reports tend to present \u00a0Zahrtmann as a \u2018collector\u2019 and his home as a magical, fairy tale place,77<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0where gilt frames, objets d\u2019art and Persian rugs combine to form an aesthetic redolent with condensed sensory appeal: \u00a0\u2018For this room is more than just old and precious furniture (of which there is plenty), more than thick rugs (which cover the vast expanse of floor), more than the most exquisite art on walls and shelves; it is a symphony woven out of all the themes of all that is tasteful and pleasant and comfortable, a lovely home for a man of spirit and intellect\u2019.78<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Fig. 26.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: Self-Portrait<\/em>, 1916. Oil on canvas, 15.5 x 13.3 cm., Sor\u00f8 Art Museum, inv. no. VKS-00-0220. Photo: \u00a9 Anders Sune Berg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In recent history, the home\/interior design has become a place offering a special opportunity to work relatively freely with queer identity while also sending clear signals to and for \u2018those in the know\u2019. The well-orchestrated, painstakingly decorated homosexual home occupies a hybrid space, poised between behaviours and spheres traditionally seen as either masculine or feminine.Visual Culture and Gender<\/em>, vol. 5, pp. 16&ndash;27; Michael Hatt: &lsquo;Space, Surface. Self: Homosexuality and the Aesthetic Interior&rsquo;, Visual Culture in Britain<\/em>, no. 1, 2007.\n\">79<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0The queer home reaches directly into the heart of ideas about that which is most personal and private of all. So too does collecting, which has typically been separated out into a \u2018feminine\u2019, female realm of furniture, fabrics and smaller objets d\u2019art \u2013 bordering on interior design \u2013 whereas large paintings, weapons and the like have been seen as more \u2018masculine\u2019 and, hence, manly. The idea of Zahrtmann as a \u2018collector\u2019, where the home itself is <\/em>the collection, signals a similar hybridity of masculine and feminine interests. Like all private collections, its significance revolves around the collector himself, because all collectors ultimately collect themselves<\/em>.The System of Objects<\/em>, London and New York: Verso, pp. 91&ndash;114\n\">80<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0One also gets the sense of Zahrtmann carrying out a deliberate \u2018curating\u2019 process in those paintings that are set in his home and refer to his own works \u2013 Prometheus <\/em>in particular often appears in the background \u2013 as well as to art by others. Zahrtmann the man, his artistic production, his home and his collection of artefacts merge into a distinctive space of his own, a \u2018home-stead\u2019. Set in an era where \u2018character\u2019 is the crucial parameter when assessing art and artists alike, this hybrid place <\/em>constitutes a powerful statement. But, like all collections, Zahrtmann\u2019s home-stead is also always in flux, always evolving.<\/p>\n

Fig. 27.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: Self-Portrait. Lamplight, <\/em>1914. Oil on canvas, 39.5 x 32 cm. SMK \u2013 National Gallery of Denmark, KMS7474. Photo: Public Domain, www.smk.dk<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the final years of his life, Zahrtmann created a number of rapidly painted, almost serial self-portraits set in his studio-parlour. Headgear and facial hair come and go, the lighting changes, and the handling of colours and brushwork is sometimes loose, sometimes tighter [fig.26-28]<\/strong>. Sophus Danneskjold-Sams\u00f8e, Zahrtmann\u2019s biographer, takes a formalist starting point and is enthusiastic about these seemingly modernist paintings; works which might, in contrast to the rest of Zahrtmann\u2019s late work, be perceived as autonomous exercises in form without any deep biographic significance.81<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0However, the kind of new criticism with which Danneskjold-Sams\u00f8e obviously had clear affinities back in 1942 never really worked well when considering queer art, a realm where author and work are always-already closely interwoven.New Lesbian Criticism: Literary and Cultural Readings<\/em>, Columbia University Press, New York 1992; Richard Dyer: &lsquo;Believing in Fairies: The Author and the Homosexual&rsquo;, in Diana Fuss (ed.): Inside\/Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories<\/em>, Routledge, New York and London 1991.\n\">82<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Zahrtmann\u2019s art was created during a time when sender and work were seen as a totality, and all of Zahrtmann\u2019s queer project makes use of this conflation \u2013 both in practical and ideological terms. His final self-portraits are not a matter of formalism \u2013 quite the contrary, they make sense as the final step in his decades-long process of creating a persona. Zahrtmann is filmed, photographed, has his voice recorded, he is thoroughly documented and reported, <\/em>and he exhibits art that refers to his home and studio over and over again. If anything, his concluding self-portraits form a kind of superstructure to his preceding efforts to create a place of his own, a home-stead \u2013 efforts that can be said to have had happy results in many ways. By this time, Zahrtmann has come so far in his self-defining, queer project that he is able to approach the question of his own identity and affinities in yet another new way; but he still cannot possibly let it go.<\/p>\n

Fig. 28.<\/strong> Kristian Zahrtmann: Self-Portrait, <\/em>1916. Oil on canvas, 17.6 x 14.9. Fuglsang Art Museum, inv. no. 347. Photo: \u00a9 Ole Akh\u00f8j.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Zahrtmann paints portraits throughout his life, and like so many other artists he began with what happened to be at hand \u2013 his family and his childhood home.Kristian Zahrtmann<\/em>, Storstr\u00f8ms Kunstmuseum, Bornholms Kunstmuseum, Fyns Kunstmuseum and Bornholms Museumsforening 1999, pp. 21&ndash;34.\n\">83<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0He also concludes his artistic endeavours by focusing on what is immediately to hand, which by this point means portraits of himself in his home, painted in his studio-parlour by the natural light streaming in through the huge studio window or by artificial light from lamps draped in red fabric. The strongly iconographic features have been pared away by this point; Zahrtmann\u2019s home can no longer be recognised as such, so the observer needs to know in advance that this is where he produces his art \u2013 and his audience does <\/em>know.<\/p>\n

\u2018But, who knows Zahrtmann!\u2019, stated Ernst Goldschmidt in his birthday greeting,84<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0and the answer must be that we know those aspects he calls forth and develops in conjunction with those of us who observe and see<\/em> him. The overall picture of Zahrtmann is also changeable and playful, at times intimate and earnest, but always full of intertextual references calling out to be deciphered by those who know the codes. Today we are willing to read \u2018between the lines\u2019, and after a hundred years of new ideas we find it much easier to identify his queer project across his art and persona. Of course, this should in no way overshadow the sheer emotional impact of this essentially human endeavour: the bravery, entertainment value and poignancy of seeing a human being merge art, life and self-presentation in order to create a space that never existed before: a place of potential, scope and expression for a queer personality.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thanks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Researching and writing the article has been made possible through a grant from the Ministry of Culture’s Research Council who also supported a number of workshops. I am grateful to Michael Hatt (University of Warwick), Patrik Steorn (Thielska Galleriet) and Rikke Zinck Jensen for their participation and for good discussions about the art of Kristian Zahrtmann.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Around 1900, the Danish painter Kristian Zahrtmann creates a queer persona which cannot be separated from his art. In numerous paintings, he references himself, his dreams, and his home which \u2013 at the time \u2013 is clearly seen as an authentic self-portrait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[19,20,21],"class_list":["post-3350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-queer-theory","tag-the-modern-breakthrough","tag-zahrtmann-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLife, work and home-stead: A queer portrait of Kristian Zahrtmann - Perspective<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.perspectivejournal.dk\/en\/life-work-and-home-stead-a-queer-portrait-of-kristian-zahrtmann\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Life, work and home-stead: A queer portrait of Kristian Zahrtmann - Perspective\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Around 1900, the Danish painter Kristian Zahrtmann creates a queer persona which cannot be separated from his art. 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