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https://www.wsj.com/articles/beyond-the-light-identity-and-place-in-19th-century-danish-art-review-a-reflective-golden-age-11675512006

The first picture you encounter in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Beyond the Light: Identity and Place in Nineteenth-Century Danish Art” is Wilhelm Bendz’s cluttered, highly detailed oil painting “A Young Artist (Ditlev Blunck) Examining a Sketch in the Mirror” (1826). At roughly 39 inches tall by 34 inches wide, Bendz’s studio interior is among the largest artworks in this thematically installed exhibition of mostly small works on paper. It’s also the most densely packed and complex image here: compositionally, symbolically, metaphorically.

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This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.