The Daily Valdemar No. 53: May 5
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| Valdemar Andersen, sketch for the cover of Sunday edition "Magasinet" in the daily Politiken of June 26, 1926. Private collection. |
The statue of King Frederik VI is the solid block of ink around which everything evolves. His prominence should drain the rest of the picture plane, but he remains largely a non-presence. He is the gatekeeper to a world where new life explores the freedom of summer or to be specific his statue demarcates the entrance to the Frederiksberg Gardens from where the grounds open themselves to the park-goer leaving behind the city outside. The children are wondering, finding, playing, or just hanging out. Two of them are running away from the scene deeper into the gardens. Above it all and much taller than the statue are the trees centuries old, but they too are as light and new to the summer as the children.
Sharp geometric lines - the railing and the hoops - are played out against the dotting of ink with their soft outlines. One tree is unadorned in its stark structure to the left while its opposite to the right is blurry and both of their crowns are hovering far above everything. The children connect it all by setting the geometric structures and soft blots into motion.
To the far left is a person resting on a line for a bench. All ages are enjoying the sun, just as the children will have mothers and nannies with watchful eyes all around them. This is but the entrance to and the essence of the feeling of summer.
