International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts
Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle
The influence of the Carl Lund Collection on contemporary documentation of Danish stage settings 1883-1925
Lisbet Grandjean
The Theatre and Theatre Collections / Le théâtre et les collections de documents
International
Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing
Arts
16th International Congress, London, 9-13 September 1985
Proceedings of the Congress
Société Internationale
des Bibliothèques et des Musées des arts du spectacle
16ème Congres Internationale, Londres, 9-13 september
1985
Procès-Verbal
London 1986, 50-54, [French abstract], pp. 55-56
The set sketches in the collection of the Theatre Museum are not the result of any conscious collection policy, but a product of the various gifts of which our Museum previously received so many. In actual fact, the Museum has never had a general policy aimed towards persuading the theatres to donate material to the Museum, so it will be understood that providing documentation, for instance, for the Copenhagen scene from around the turn of the century is very difficult indeed.
Only a limited number of photographs of scenes from the period are available to us. It is true that the period is richly represented when it comes to role portraits, but these cannot be used as documentation for the set designs of that period, having mostly been taken in the photographer's studio in front of whatever backcloth or whatever pieces of scenery the photographer happened to have at hand.
An interesting fact that can, however, be derived from research into the subject of Scandinavian theatre around the turn of the century is that there are three scenic painters - one in each of the three Scandinavian countries - whose background, training, and types of commission are very similar: in Norway Jens Wang, in Sweden - as we have just heard - Carl Grabow, and in Denmark Carl Lund. But strangely enough no research has previously been carried out on the mutual dependence of these three painters or the way in which they may have influenced each other. But now there will be. The reason that this research has not been carried out earlier may of course be that source material is as difficult to come by in Norway and Sweden as in Denmark.
Danish researchers have had some limited written evidence of Carl Lund's set designs. In Copenhagen at that time - when Carl Lund had designed new sets - people would say that Lund had as usual surpassed himself. But due to the lack of source material it has not been possible to get a visual impression of the way in which Carl Lund 'had as usual surpassed himself'. And theatre reviews from that time are no help because at best their description of the visual impact of the various performances was on the lines of: 'the stage setting was magnificent, and the costume designs beautiful'.
On the basis of reviews and the few playbills on which the scenic painter got a mention it has long been known that from 1883 to 1925 Carl Lund created sets for nearly all Danish theatres and touring companies - even for sending to the capital of Norway, Christiania (now Oslo). But until recently, we did not realise just how prolific a scenic painter Carl Lund was.
A little less than two years ago the Theatre Museum was invited to examine the theatre-related contents of a flat, the owner of which, an old lady, had recently died. At first sight the task seemed impossible. Her two rooms were overflowing with bundles of letters, account books, old bills, set sketches, photographs, costume designs, manuals, etc. But as my staff and I began to work our way through the piles of material, we slowly realised that in all probability this was comprehensive source material about the scenic painter Carl Lund. It appeared that the old lady, Miss Ingelise Poulsen, who had died a spinster, had been Carl Lund's personal assistant for many years, and that she had tried to preserve every scrap of material from his hand.
At this point we simply started filling crates and suitcases indiscriminately with everything which could possibly be even remotely relevant. Unfortunately, we had to live with the knowledge that part of the material had already been removed and according to the instructions of Ingelise Poulsen sent on to Lund's illegitimate son who wanted to remain anonymous. The material was stored in the Museum archives, to be studied in more detail at a later date.
About 12 months after this event, in the summer of 1984, 1 received a telephone call from a man in Arhus who wanted to know whether we would be interested in receiving as a bequest some material on Carl Lund, the scenic painter. The material, he said, had come from an old lady, who had bequeathed it to Lund's son on whose behalf this telephone call was being made. My heart skipped not one beat but several. After another couple of telephone calls I left for Arhus where I met the anonymous son, a lively gentleman of 80, who spent two and a half hours telling me about his father and his work. He let me take several crates of material with me back to the Museum as well as a recording of our conversation.
Carl Lund was born on April 21, 1855, in Odense, the native town of Hans Christian Andersen. Carl Lund's mother was a niece of C.F. Aagaard, the Danish painter and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts - it was he who did the paintings on the ceiling in what is today the Royal Theatre - and it was to his studio that Lund became apprenticed from 1876 to 1878, after having attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. In 1878 Lund went on a study tour to Munich, to Italy, and to Vienna where he applied himself in particular to the art of scenic painting. The source material has still not revealed who his teacher was there. When he returned to Copenhagen in 1882 he was commissioned to create the sets for the opening performance of the newest and most grandiose theatre, The Dagmar, named after the Russian Czarina Dagmar, the sister of Queen Alexandra of Britain. The theatre's first piece was 'Light Cavalry' by Franz von Suppé, an ideal vehicle for Lund's artistic imagination.
The Copenhageners thought his sets so sensational that he and his scenic painting became the talk of the town. Lund continued creating sets for this theatre for a couple of years, but in 1884 he was employed by the Casino, where the most spectacular operettas and melodramas were performed. Working at this theatre gave Lund inspiration for the creation of a cornucopia of novel ideas. I will show you examples of his ideas presently.
In 1896 he was temporarily employed as a scenic painter by The Royal Theatre, but conditions there cannot have been to his liking, for he remained there for only 12 months. After that he opened his own studio where - as we have derived from his account books - he created sets for entire performances, house tabs, tableau curtains, or individual pieces of scenery for all the Copenhagen theatres.
Just before the turn of the century Carl Lund created something completely novel to amaze and please the visitors in Tivoli, Copenhagen's pleasure gardens: huge open-air sets representing spectacular sights like Amalienborg (the Danish Royal Palace), the Blue Grotto at Capri, the Babylonian gardens, Italian folk festivities, and Mount Brocken in Germany All these sets were completed in his studio in the attic above the nave of the old Trinity Church in the centre of Copenhagen. It is the tower of this church that is known as the Round Tower. When completed, the huge painted sets were taken down some 115 feet to street level via the tower, not down steps, but down a wide spiral causeway which winds its way inside the tower - and on to the theatre in question.
Carl Lund died in 1940, and with him important information about the set designs of a whole epoch disappeared, or at least for 45 years it did. None of the Copenhagen theatres kept set sketches, and very few stage-mechanic records remain to inform us about the sets of that period.
Playbills have not been much help either as the scenic painter was rarely given a mention. And in all probability, Lund's own material has been shut away in the cupboards of his assistant since 1927, the year he closed his studio.
But now that Lund's sketches and account books have been found, it will be possible to see for just how many theatres he created sets - we will, so to speak, be able to add the scenic painter's name to a number of our old playbills - and we will be able to get a general impression of the genres for which Lund designed sets.
When Lund embarked on his career, there were only three large theatres in Copenhagen of any consequence. The most distinguished one was the Royal Theatre, which opened in 1748. The other two, the Casino (1848) and the Folketeatret (1857), were comparable to the French boulevard theatres. Then came, as I have already mentioned, The Dagmar with its opening performance of Light Cavalry. This is an operetta the story of which lends itself to all the optical illusions that so impressed the audiences of the 1800s.
This operetta gave Lund the possibility of creating spectacular exotic scenery thronging with people in brightly coloured costumes. Being allowed to create every piece of scenery from scratch was no everyday occurrence on the Copenhagen stage for a young scenic painter. Lund created sets with the transparency effect, an effect which had never before been seen on a Danish stage. In 'Light Cavalry' the Hungarian mountains slowly took on a red tinge from the rays of the setting sun. Then the moon would move across the night sky. This was possible because electricity, then a revolutionary discovery, had been installed in parts of the new theatre, The Dagmar, so Lund was able to demonstrate the new effects he had learnt about in Vienna.
The opening-night audience was highly amazed. Talk of Lund's luminous phenomena overshadowed every other subject for days. And just a few weeks later, Lund presented new sceneries with more novel effects to a thrilled audience. And so it went on year after year at all the theatres for which Lund worked. The performances themselves would sometimes get poor reviews, but Lund's work was always praised. Unfortunately, we have not found any sketches from these early performances, but I can show you some of his later transparencies.
It is a little early, so soon after beginning the study of the comprehensive material we have found, to try to explain what is so special about Lund's scenes, but there are important factors that are immediately obvious.
First and foremost he uses very clear, bright colours, as you see in these pictures. There is a lightness, even in his most monumental sketches, as well as something very grandiose. And in those of his sketches representing well-known places, every last detail has been faithfully and accurately included. We have been able to ascertain this accuracy many times, especially in the sets created for a 1923 summer revue where the acts are set in a particular quarter of Copenhagen, Christianshavn, which was also the name of the revue.
Here we have a moving backcloth, depicting the Copenhagen water-front. Sadly, this water-front has later been broken up - a matter which is much debated in Copenhagen -, but this set is unique evidence of what it once looked like. I am certain the Copenhagen City Museum would like to have this item as a permanent loan.
Another scene from the same performance shows the welding hall of one of Denmark's largest shipyards. One could not imagine clearer evidence of a contemporary working environment. The transparency effect has been use to the full here, as you will see from this picture.
On the basis of the material which has become available to us we can now say that during his long active life as a scenic painter Carl Lund mainly created sets for the light genres: operettas, melodramas, and revues. And this is not just due to the fact that these were the only types of performances allowed until 1889. It is interesting to note that when theatres started staging other and more serious genres, it was rarely Lund who did the sets.
Lund painted the most delightful views of Copenhagen for the many performances that were set there around the turn of the century. Many of the provincial theatres would then order smaller versions of the sets as well as sets representing their own towns. Palaces, parks, streets, small businesses, even the huge new glasshouse at Copenhagen's Botanical Gardens would appear before the eyes of the astonished audience when the curtains opened.
It was from account books and quick sketches we learnt about the many smaller copies of his sets for smaller stages.
I would like to mention one more special effect that was characteristic of Carl Lund's set designs, his moving vehicles: puffing trains, automobiles, even a Zeppelin floating above the heads of the audience. And generally speaking, the material which survives speaks clearly of an abundant use of ingenious practicables.
The material which is now available to us tells us how Lund went about achieving his final product. A very large collection of sketches shows that he walked through the countryside looking for motifs, drawing sketches of them, and - once back in his studio - he would base his sets on the sketches. He collected photographs and illustrations from journals from all over Europe in order to jog his memory or have them serve as inspiration. Correspondence between him and his assistant show that he sent her to London with her sketchbook to bring back careful sketches and descriptions for him to work on when he was given the coimnission by The Casino of creating the sets for the melodrama, 'London by Lamplight'. Unfortunately, only this sketch survives.
I have chosen to talk on the works of a scenic painter who is relatively unknown internationally at this conference, not so much to tell you about Carl Lund himself, but to emphasise how important it is for a theatre collection to keep close contact with live theatre in order to secure documentation. The new Carl Lund material will enable the Theatre Museum to carry out research over the next few years into the subject of Copenhagen sceneries 1880-1930. It will be possible to evaluate the other scenic painters of the period much more accurately. We will now be able to illustrate what fascinated the theatregoers of a whole city. And, not least, it will now be possible to gain more accurate information about the conditions and possibilities of dramatic art at the time.
As I have already said, the Theatre Museum has not previously co-operated systematically with Danish theatres with a view to collecting relevant material. The collection has mainly been built up on the basis of material donated to the Museum and whatever items the Museum itself has been able to afford.
But in 1984 we established formalised co-operation with Denmark's permanent theatres. Due to limited staff and economic resources, we cannot include other theatres. From the performances of the theatres we get: playbills, programmes, press photographs, manuscripts, and other material concerning the performance. From the beginning of the 1985/86 season a modest press-cutting service will be established, in order for us to be able to add reviews to our other documentation.
It has, however, been our experience over the last couple of years that it is very difficult to obtain any material from scenographers and costume designers, and so far it has been well-nigh impossible to make theatre managements understand that they must bring us in before they start tidying up and throwing out. Details they consider of no consequence could well - seen from a documentation point of view - be the important bits missing from a larger jigsaw puzzle. For this reason, with effect from June 1 the Theatre Museum has enlarged its executive committee to include representatives from the two groups mentioned in the hope thus to create greater understanding between live theatre and collection work.
If future theatre collections are to reflect contemporary live theatre accurately, it is of vital importance that we who are at the head of the collections do not remain passive and expect that 'somehow' the material will be handed in - because those days are over, now there is a price attached. We have to make a conscious effort and go out and get it before it is too late.
Comment la collection Carl Lund a influencé la documentation contemporaine sur les mises en scène danoises de 1883 à 1925
Lisbet Grandjean.
La collection d'esquisses de décors du Musée du Théâtre danois n'est pas le résultat d'une politique consciente de collectage mais plutôt le produit des nombreux dons hétérogènes qui autrefois affluaient au Musée. Ajoutez à cela le fait qu'aucune politique consciente n'a jamais été menée pour amener les théâtres à remettre de la documentation au Musée et vous comprendrez qu'il est extrêmement difficile de documenter l'aspect de la scène copenhaguoise au tournant du siècle.
Or, il est intéressant de noter, grâce à la recherche faite dans le domaine du théâtre scandinave de I'époque en question, que la période comptait trois peintres de décors dont l'enfance et la jeunesse, l'éducation et la substance de leur travail présentent des similarités considérables. En Norvège le décorateur s'appelait Jens Wang, en Suède, comme nous venons de l'entendre, il y avait Carl Grabow et au Danemark nous avions Carl Lund. L'interdépendance de ces trois peintres ou leur influence réciproque n'a pas jusqu'à présent fait l'objet de recherches, ce qui peut surprendre. Mais tout semble indiquer que de telles recherches seront entreprises sous peu. Bien entendu, le manque de recherches peut être dû au fait qu'en Norvège et en Suède les sources ont été tout aussi difficiles à découvrir qu'au Danemark.
La recherche danoise possède depuis de nombreuses années des informations littéraires fort modestes sur les travaux de décoration de Carl Lund. Un mot d'esprit que Von entendait à Copenhague chaque fois que Lund venait de livrer de nouveaux décors voulait qu'il se soit encore une fois surpassé. Mais en raison du manque de documentation il n'a pas été possible de visualiser la manière de laquelle se surpassait sans cesse Carl Lund. Et les critiques des représentations n'ont pas fourni d'informations complémentaires, car elles se bornent à constater, dans le meilleur des cas, que "l'arrangement était grandiose et les costumes très beaux".
Il y a environ un an le Musée du Théâtre s'est vu offrir, de deux sources différentes, une très vaste documentation dans laquelle nous avons trouvé les esquisses de décors, les livres de compte, les lettres, les factures, les photos, etc., laissés par le décorateur Carl Lund.
Après la découverte de ces pièces il sera dorénavant possible d'une part de dresser la liste des théâtres pour lesquels Lund peignait les décors - plaçant en quelque sorte le nom du décorateur sur une série de vieilles affiches, d'autre part de donner un aperçu général des genres dramatiques dont s'occupait Lund.
A ce congrès, qui a pour thème les relations entre le théâtre vivant et les collections de théâtre, j'ai évoqué un décorateur assez peu connu sur le plan international. Et bien entendu, ce n'est pas la personne de Carl Lund en elle-même qui m'intéresse ici. J'ai voulu illustrer par là combien il est important pour une collection de théâtre de rester en contact étroit avec le théâtre vivant pour obtenir de la documentation. Grâce à la documentation sur Carl Lund qui vient d'être découverte, pendant les années à venir le Musée du Théâtre se livrera à des recherches autour de la mise en scène copenhaguoise pendant la période allant de 1880 à 1930. Une évaluation beaucoup plus précise des autres décorateurs de l'époque sera désormais possible. L'on pourra illustrer ce qui a fasciné les amateurs de théâtre de toute une ville. Et, en premier lieu, on pourra se procurer des connaissances plus approfondies des possibilités qui s'offraient à l'art dramatique de l'époque.
Je l'ai déjà dit, le Musée du Théâtre n'a pas eu jusqu'à présent de collaboration systématique avec les théâtres danois dans le but d'une collecte de documentation. Comme je l'ai dit dans mon introduction, la collection a été constituée grosso modo à partir des dons reçus, complétés dans la mesure où l'économie l'a permis - d'objets achetés pour combler les lacunes.
Depuis 1984 nous avons une collaboration formelle avec les théâtres établis du pays. Car compte tenu de nos effectifs et de notre budget nous sommes obligés de nous limiter pour ne pas être submergés. Nous recevons des représentations des théâtres: affiches, programmes, photos de presse, manuscrits, ainsi que d'autres publications produites pour les besoins d'une représentation. A partir du début de la saison théâtrale 1985-86 le Musée créera en outre en modeste service d'extraits de presse, permettant ainsi d'ajouter à notre documentation des critiques.
Nos expériences de ces dernières années ont cependant montré qu'il est très difficile d'obtenir de la documentation des scénographes et des costumiers et jusqu'à présent nous n'avons pas réussi à faire comprendre aux directeurs des théâtres qu'ils doivent faire appel à nous avant de jeter quoi que ce soit. Ce qui pour eux est sans importance peut représenter pour la documentation des pièces importantes dans une mosaïque incomplète. C'est pourquoi le Musée du Théâtre a décidé d'élargir son conseil d'administration à partir du 1er juin dernier en y associant des représentants de ces deux groupes précis, dans l'espoir de créer un meilleur lien entre le théâtre vivant et le travail du Musée.
Si nous voulons qu'à l'avenir les collections de théâtre reflètent le théâtre contemporain il est d'une importance primordiale que nous autres directeurs de collections ne restions pas les bras croisés à attendre que la documentation vienne à nous - car elle ne viendra plus. Chaque chose a son prix. Nous devons nous-même nous efforcer activement de la recueillir avant qu'il ne soit trop tard.
URL: http://www.theatrelibrary.org/sibmas/congresses/sibmas85/london85_09.html
Last updated: 27.11.2002
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