But, Why Daddy, Why?
Valdemar Andersen, Poster for the daily Politiken, 1908. Shown with permission from Designmuseum Danmark. I apologize for the poor quality of the photo; it was taken by me for study purposes. |
Ida Felicia Noack chose Valdemar Andersen when she was preparing her contribution for the cartoonists' exhibition at this year's Copenhagen Comics. The exhibition challenged the cartoonists of today to each draw a predecessor, interpreting him or her in the successor's own line and telling the story of what made this particular cartoonist stand out.
Since Valdemar Andersen is known for his ethereal ink line, making his figures first and foremost art rather giving them a solid presence before us, and adding to this women and children as his preferred subjects, Ida Felicia initially toyed with the idea of entering into a dialogue with him to the point that he would be the one to transform her into his image rather than the other way round.
Ida Felicia Noack, Detail of Valdemar Andersen and Son, 2015. |
From the letters between Valdemar and his wife Juliane, we meet her as an avid reader, taking in the latest publications such as the new Henrik Pontoppidan while their son Ib would be sleeping in his pram. She would be the one leading the conversation, discussing with their author friends at dinner. She was highly protective of her husband and would not put up with anything or anyone with whom she disagreed. All of which is in fact present in the original poster of her reading, actively staying informed with a focus on the drawing by her husband heading the page.
Ida Felicia Noack, Detail of Valdemar Andersen and Son, 2015. |
Valdemar Andersen, detail of the sketch above. |
Valdemar Andersen, detail of the sketch above. |
All of the above Ida Felicia incorporated into her poster-size exhibition entrance. What was intended to be on Valdemar, ultimately comprised both Valdemar and Ib with a defining appearance of Juliane:
Ida Felicia Noack, Valdemar Andersen and Son, 2015. |
Juliane did have the striped kimono in actual life; she posed in photos taken by Valdemar Andersen wearing it. We cannot tell the color of course, but as a mature artist in own right her son took that very kimono back to a piece of drawn Japan, making it all about the green stripes and combining them with the allusion to the Japanese block print Van Gogh once copied of running persons covering for the rain only in this case aligning the diagonal with the trees and pylons we know so well from Ib Andersen's own works:
Ib Andersen, from "Magasinet" for the daily Politiken, 1942. |