Village Street

Henry Wivel praised L. A. Ring as 'the painter of roads par excellence within Danish art' (H Wivel, L.A. Ring, Copenhagen, 1997, p. 50). Roads were a recurring motif in Ring’s oeuvre, and in the present work the sandy-colored earthen road cutting centrally through the picture plane occupies the entire width of the canvas where it intersects at the lower edge. However, the focus of the artist does not fall on the road alone, but also on the painter’s relationship to this inviting track stretching off into the distance. In laying the road at our feet, Frederiksen suggests that Ring is not simply inviting the viewer forward, but characterizing 'his own role in the landscape as that of a wayfairer, to signify that he perceives himself as being constantly on the move' (F. T. Frederiksen ‘Ring’s Roads’ in ed. P.N. Larsen, L.A. Ring On the Edge of the World, Copenhagen, 2006 p.150). In doing so, the depicted scene communicated not only a certain place in time, but the buildings and landscape become timeless while Ring shows himself not 'as resting in the landscape, but wandering or moving through it' (ibid., p151).