Home Away From Home
Valdemar Andersen, page in the birthday book for Juliane Andersen, 1924. Privately owned. Photo by Niels C.B. Larsen.
The building above was barely finished when Valdemar Andersen came to Nykøbing Mors to decorate the grand room behind its three romanesque windows.
It is a stately edifice yet proportioned to the human scale. It seems to rest rather than rise in the terrain giving it a calm presence.
About the time of his arrival it was realized that it pays to listen to the locals. The elderly had been warning against using that spot. Nothing had hitherto been built there due to a spring running right below. But the summer was hot and the spring had dried out when the planning took place and the warnings were brushed off as old peoples' tales. A pump soon had to be installed to lead the water away. It is still there.
The police station was to move in on the ground floor with a courtroom above it. New legislation at the time had just been put in place separating police investigation from testing a case in court. New architecture was needed and Valdemar Andersen created a decorative frame for the future court in Nykøbing Mors.
Valdemar Andersen, page in the birthday book for Juliane Andersen, 1924. Privately owned. Photo by Niels C.B. Larsen.
The police station downstairs was not yet in use, when Valdemar Andersen arrived so it was turned into his studio. For Juliane's birthday book he added details in watercolour to the original photo of houses, trees and blue sky outside.
On a tiny easel to the left on his working table the model is placed than can see been right below of the central section of the ceiling. It is divided into three parts, with two panels in canvas on both sides of a chandelier. The paintings symbolized the criminal (the lion biting a deer) and the civil law (two horses bickering). The passepartout has fine lines drawn in pencil to mimic the cornice of the ceiling:
Valdemar Andersen, model for the ceiling of the courtroom in Nykøbing Mors, 1923.
Photo: Niels C.B. Larsen
Pay was low or nonexistent and Valdemar Andersen had to save on everything if he were to have enough money for his travel home. Rather than staying at an inn, a comfortable corner with a bed and chair was created for him downstairs in the soon-to-be police station.
Valdemar Andersen, page in the birthday book for Juliane Andersen, 1924. Privately owned. Photo by Niels C.B. Larsen.
With his coat and hat on a hook and a sink and towel at his disposal, he was probably as contented as he could possibly be while away from home. He was known to work day and night so this was as close as he came to a rather perfect solution.
Valdemar Andersen, page in the birthday book for Juliane Andersen, 1924. Privately owned. Photo by Niels C.B. Larsen.
