“En betydelig mangel”

Jakob Danielsens værker på Statens Museum for Kunst og Nationalmuseet

Abstract

This article explores the institutional trajectories and interpretive frameworks surrounding the
watercolours and drawings of Jakob Danielsen (1888–1938), a Kalaallit artist and hunter from
Qeqertarsuaq, whose works were collected extensively in the early 20th century. Despite a major
exhibition of over 300 of his artworks at the Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK) in 1941, Danielsen’s
oeuvre was largely institutionalized not within Denmark’s national art museum but in the
ethnographic collections of the National Museum. This study traces the history of Danielsen’s
reception, from his contemporary championing by colonial administrator Philip Rosendahl to later
acquisitions by SMK, contextualized as a response to a “significant lack” in its collection of art
from Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland). By reading Danielsen’s series-based compositions—often
focused on hunting scenes—as both aesthetic expressions and cultural documentation, the article
highlights how institutional framing shaped their perceived value. Drawing on theories of the
contact zone and autoethnography, the article argues that Danielsen’s works occupy a complex
position between ethnographic object and autonomous artwork, entangled in colonial narratives of
authenticity and salvage. Through a critical analysis of exhibition practices, acquisition rationales,
and representational strategies, the article examines how Danielsen’s visual vocabulary resists
reduction to either category, instead offering a situated, modern and self-aware visual engagement
with Kalaallit life. The article ultimately calls for a reappraisal of Danielsen’s work within art
historical discourse and a reconsideration of institutional responsibilities in framing Indigenous
artistic production within national collections.