Hans Christian Andersen was versatile; he wrote fairy-tales, novels, plays, poems and – not the least important – travel books. But throughout his life he was deeply absorbed by other art forms such as music and the theatre (where as a young man he had hoped to make his career) and the visual arts. As the years passed, he became a talented and original practitioner in various areas of visual art: pencil drawings (mainly imaginative), later pen-and-ink drawings mostly of what he saw on his travels, paper-cuts (which became his speciality), and finally, a combination of all these in picture-books. Like many of his paper-cuts, Andersen’s picture-books were created mainly for the entertainment of children in the families who came to take the place of his own family, and several of them were put together in collaboration with Adolph Drewsen, married to Ingeborg Collin, the daughter of Jonas Collin, Andersen’s mentor and fatherly friend from his earliest days in Copenhagen. Drewsen undoubtedly did a great deal of the work. The two middle-aged gentlemen’s compilations must have been intended for Rigmor, Astrid and Christine Stampe, daughters of Drewsen’s son-in-law Henrik Stampe and Jonna Drewsen. A facsimile edition of Christines Billedbog (Christine’s Picture Book) edited and with notes by the present writer, was published in 1984 and has been translated into four languages. In this an attempt has been made to trace the sources of as many as possible of the book’s more than 1,000 pictures and picture fragments; the genre and its sources are described in a Postscript. Hans Christian Ørsteds Billedbog (Hans Christian Ørsted’s Picture Book) was made by the physicist’s daughter, Mathilde Ørsted (a schoolteacher and translator) for her nephew, whose first names were also Hans Christian. He was born in 1863, and we are fortunate in having Andersen’s confirmation in his diary entry for 11 February 1869: After a lively evening he writes: “Sat up till almost 2 o’clock and wrote verses in the picture-book which Mathilde Ørsted has pasted up for her nephew.” (H.C.Andersens Dagbøger VIII, p. 177). Although the book is less festive and varied than Andersen’s (and Drewsen’s) works, here we can be certain, as Andersen expressed it, that “Mathilde has provided the pictures and Andersen the words.” Fol. 21 recto. If one asks where all these pictures came from, the answers will vary, just like some of the pictures. Glazed pictures had not yet been developed, and newspapers as a rule only had small figures, especially trademarks in advertisements. But since the 1830s there had been trade journals and amusing periodicals with titles like Pfennigmagasin, Penny Cyclopedia and DanskPenning-Magasin as well as illustrated almanacs, catalogues and small kinds of printed matter. And above all there was a large production in many countries of picture sheets with all kinds of themes: town and country, flora and fauna, scenes from fairy-tales. Such sheets were often quite large and could include a great many small pictures. In addition, there were sheets with repeated or mixed subjects designed for cutting out (and perhaps mounting on a small stand) that could be combined to form whole scenes. A great many of them came from Neuruppin and Épinal in France, and statistics on record include 1,500 double sheets a day with two lithographers at the printing machine, 650,000 sheets from Pellérin in France in 1845 providing a livelihood for 80 to 100 people (half of them children), 1,000 different sheets produced by Geisler in Leipzig in 1848, and 8,000 predominantly religious and historical subjects in a French catalogue of picture sheets sanctioned by the censor. Silhouettes were also very much in fashion and were often executed, for example, by travelling silhouettists. Andersen’s paper-cuts, however, cannot be called silhouettes as they were seldom black. When a guest he naturally often cut them for the pleasure of children and grown-ups and also for his own diversion, and they can therefore be found in various places – perhaps inserted in a book, sometimes beautifully framed. Of course many were scrunched up and have disappeared. They might even be cut so as to have a little foot on which they could be stood up. Andersen’s paper-cuts are usually symmetrical, featuring buildings, trees, people and fanciful figures. Some of them are quite large and with many small symmetrical axes in addition to the principal, or two principal folds. This means that at first you can see various details – and then something completely different if you look at another quarter of the paper-cut. Fol. 30 verso (extract). It cannot be denied that Hans Christian Ørsteds Billedbog has few paper-cuts: a litle symmetrical troll’s head, a not exactly childish, evidently female “devil” and a decorative little frieze as well as a figure that represents Hans Christian, who resigns himself to his fate; it is only one of many examples of the five-year-old’s name being mentioned and linked to places he may perhaps be allowed to see, or may not be allowed to see and experience; or else he is appealed to by the mention of his name. Mathilde Ørsted, the compiler of the book, is also occasionally mentioned. Otherwise the book is comprehensive, although rather more bulky on account of the many large pictures, often taking up half a page. Many of these originated from various magazines of miscellaneous content, often “factual”, their subjects being drawn from history, architecture and travels throughout the world in addition to humoristic matter. Many of the pictures have been carefully provided with captions; two German magazines can be discerned, also one English and one French. In such cuttings, the practical is combined with the enjoyable. Cuttings of this kind also contribute to the impression that the book has few colours. Three labels for wine, soap and flax brighten things up, and some of the very small pictures belong, as mentioned above, to the popular coloured field of production. The first spectacular pages, wherever they may come from, are not, in other words, followed up very well. At the end of the book, well-known fairy-tale illustrations appear. On the way we have passed through Schillerplatz in Stuttgart, which is related to the fairy-tale about this poet entitled “The Old Church Bell”, first printed in a Schiller-Album 1861; here Andersen has had a surplus original illustration. However, it is hardly likely that little Hans Christian would be reading this “fairy-tale” yet, as is stated in the text. The same may be said of the old woman “From a Window in Vartou”. And “Ib and Little Christina” when they meet the old woman in the wood – one of Vilhelm Pedersen’s most beautiful Andersen illustrations – also has to wait a little, but it is different at the end where we have Simple Simon with the billy-goat and the princess and the child flying on the stork as the final vignette of “The Story of the Year”. Fol. 50 verso (extract). Aunt Mathilde’s book has its special character and place in the remarkable series of paper-cut books. The monument to Andersen’s interest for this sort of thing was the four-leaf stove screen. With its thousands of pictures, which friends and acquaintances helped to assemble, it illuminates Andersen’s life and activities in various countries. Aage Jørgensen’s bibliographies H.C.Andersen-litteraturen 1875-1968 (1970) p. 356 and 1969-94 (1995) p. 225 contain references to picture-books; concerning the stove screen, see especially Troels Andersen in Billedkunst. Translated by David Hohnen To the Picture-Book Top

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