tale teller

Hans Christian Andersen - I loved reading his stories when I was a child. Black ink on white paper was enough to move me into another world.

Although he did master all the different genres in literature - poetry, prose and drama - the Danish author is most known as a fairy tale author through out the world. It is less known that the author's artistic field was not limited to the written word. Hans Christian Andersen also used paper for drawings and paper cuttings.

The major parts of Hans Christian Andersen's drawings were made during his journeys in Europe and Asia Minor - especially the journey to Italy 1833-34 and the journey to Asia Minor in 1840-41. After this period it seems that the author lost the interest in drawings. In his diaries, in which Hans Christian Andersen often mentions scenarios worth drawing, one can - in a certain extend - follow the decline of the activity of this kind of artistic enterprise.

The typical drawings by Hans Christians Andersen were made on small scraps of paper easy to carry around in the pocket. Normally he made his first sketch with a pencil for later on to brace up the impression with ink. One could assume that the purpose of the drawings was to withhold scenarios as souvenirs, but in fact Hans Christian Andersen used his drawings as detailed notes for his writings. Thus there is a connection between the drawings and Hans Christians Andersen's way of writing, and the stylistic development in the drawings could be seen as equivalence to the authorship.

Source: Odense City Museums.