The Daily Valdemar No. 7: March 19
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| Valdemar Andersen, Cover for the satirical magazine Klods-Hans, June 3, 1910. |
In the first half of the 20th century in Denmark, a "Day of Child Welfare" was celebrated. Money was collected to benefit children in need and to boost the eagerness of donators in the streets it was made a day of festivities in central Copenhagen including a parade. Valdemar Andersen had made one of his most memorable posters for the day two years prior in which he drew his own son sitting in the nude as if he was forlorn, which is a description that sounds as if his son was abused for the sake of art. He was a chubby happy baby only he was drawn without any specific social signifiers - such as a poor child in rags. He was every child deserving protection.
He was sitting very much like the child playing trumpet in the middle of the picture plane two years later. We have no explanation for the dachshunds. Valdemar tended to grasp a remark that may have come up in the media and make a visual twist of it. In 1910 it seems that the idea of letting children themselves walk the streets with collection boxes had come up and had been rejected - that would have constituted abuse - and so they would have to make noise instead to make their case known, the text states underneath the printed cover.
Whatever the equation of child-collection box-dachshund, the children are capable musicians with nimble fingers and at first sight the dogs holding the sheet music tie the whole scene together into a formal orchestra.
