The Daily Valdemar No. 47: April 29
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| Valdemar Andersen, for the satirical magazine Klods-Hans, October 25, 1908 |
Oskar Matthiesen was a painter inspired by the Renaissance to do monumental scale work and he would have been in the running for first prize had there been an award in this lifetime on who did the longest and most massive paintings. At the time of this portrait he had just finished his Leda.
There is an old discord between artists of traditional media and cartoonists that while they have often been friends through the ages, cartoonists have always had a ready wit for any artist presenting themselves as belonging to a higher order. A firm favourite was someone wrapping up in a cloak with its masses of fabric to be dramatically thrown aside when gesticulating in the street. Even describing someone verbally as a cloak wearer was the quickest means of devaluing that person. The lesser artist makes all the more noise to make his presence known.
Whether Oskar Matthiesen indeed clad himself in a cloak I cannot say, but drawing him in one equaled his ego to the size of his paintings. His face is not even seen. He is presented as he may have wished to be seen in the street with a tiny nametag stated on his back about the height wherefrom we mere mortals would be admiring him. Most of the paper is left white, yet he fills out the whole of it. Strands of hair dissolve the solidity of his beard exposing the human underneath, while he is firmly focused on new work.
