The Daily Valdemar No. 59: May 11

Valdemar Andersen, illustration for the Sunday edition "Magasinet" in Politiken, ca. 1925.
Private collection.

Today's moment of calm is the infusion of high drama with cool elegance.

Each Sunday brought a new chapter from a newly published novel in the Sunday edition "Magasinet" for the daily Politiken. The illustrations made for them form a very distinctive chapter in Valdemar Andersen's own lifework. 

Valdemar chose to play with their novelty and made the scenes into the fashion ideal of the day. Their evening attire is the expected detail; rather it is about their standing tall and slim - befitting the format of the weekly illustration -  one hand decoratively arranged atop a trouser pocket, the other gripping a glass of something while confronting another such character. The scene is usually about a revelation being flung at one party. Again, cool is the keyword. The characters are startled, shocked and even shot and they do not betray a single emotional reaction. All the while the scene will be tense with their inward emotion. 

Every line of the scene will be exploring that emotion. The impossibility of finding calm, everything uprooted, Valdemar would go for a stark black/white contrast, leaving the white paper all the whiter by way of the busy angled lines for shadows. The two men before us are almost contoured in white too as if they are cut outs to further highlighting the drama. One thing that defines this design was that contrary to all his other work Valdemar seldom made the female characters come alive. The too cool to breathe-formula was at its best in a white tie.