Opflyvende ænder (udkast til dekoration af keramisk fad)

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Artist: Theodor Philipsen (Danish, 1840–1920)
Medium: Pencil, brush and watercolour
Size: Ø 328 mm
Museum: SMK – National Gallery of Denmark
Rights: Public Domain Mark

The Danish painter Theodor Phillipsen was a student at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen from 1862-1869. Part of his education was drawing nude male models. There are two drawings from c. 1867 by Phillipsen in the collection of the National Gallery of Denmark. These drawings have, however, subsequently been cropped to fit a platter and punchbowl when the artist used the other side of the paper for two ceramic designs in the 1890s. The two sketches are relatively large. This could be because Phillipsen wanted to include as much of the academy drawings on the back as possible.

Today the ceramic sketches are seen as the front of the drawings, but because Phillipsen made them on paper he had used before, his academy drawings have also found their way into our collection. This could have been a conscious recycling strategy by the artist, or else the academy drawings were the only paper he had at hand when making the ceramic sketches.