Waiting for the Train. Level Crossing by Roskilde Highway
L.A. Ring (Danish, 1854–1933)
1914
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- height 142.8 cm, width 174.5 cm, height 168.3 cm, width 201.5 cm
- Culture
- Danish
- Museum
- SMK – National Gallery of Denmark
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark: SMK waives its rights in this photograph, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the SMK – National Gallery of Denmark
About this work
A diagonal movement from the left-hand foreground leads us into the scene where our gaze meets the waiting cyclist at the edge of the image. A plethora of lines running diagonally and to the right are intersected by the lines formed by barriers and vertical poles. The view of the railway between Baldersbrønde and Hedehusene was begun in the autumn of 1913 and concluded shortly after the New Year. In January Ring moved from Baldersbrønde to Roskilde, and the painting conveys a certain sense of transit. All lines of communication –railway tracks, roads, and telegraph poles – lead out into the world, away from the man whose posture and slightly morose, anxious gaze shows that he has already been waiting long. Modern life is no longer something that simply passes by; it is part of the human condition.
