The Daily Valdemar No. 5: March 17

Valdemar Andersen, "Summer and Holiday Book for Juliane Marie", dated March 15, 1925, Designmuseum Danmark.

Shown with permission from Designmuseum Danmark.

I apologize for the poor quality of the photo. It was taken by me for study purposes.

Today's moment of calm is one in which the summer seems to last forever in a world of magic.

It is a page in a book of watercolors made for Valdemar Andersen's wife Juliane for her birthday in 1925. Their son was 17 at the time, so he is not the child before us. The identity is of no matter. This is every child or childhood at its best.

Everything is concentrated in the cookie, which the child is about to bite into. The child is enclosed in a world of its own and the stark structure of the veranda or gazebo makes the living beauty all the softer and willowy all around. Chardin would paint a moment such as this in the 17th century to catch the lightness of the heat spiraling from a tea up or playing with soap bubbles.

Moments are ephemeral of nature, yet it is real for this child and as it is for us taking it in.