- H. P. Hansen’s drawing from 1854. That same year Kierkegaard wrote that “There is no one so
shrewd that he can hit upon a form of cleverness that my policeman’s gaze does not see immediately
and that my cleverness cannot reveal to be a trick.” But that was not entirely correct. H. P. Hansen’s
drawing was a “trick” in two senses of the word. For when Kierkegaard marched past, Hansen sat in
his apartment with his pencil and pad at the ready and thus captured “the police spy” for posterity.
The shadow cast by the hat and our view of the upper side of the brim make it clear that Hansen
probably caught the figure from a window on the ground floor or one flight up. Kierkegaard aged early,
and it is clear that he shed his aesthetic refinement as the years passed, but he still retained the little
smile on his muzzle-like mouth, a smile that was sad and satirical in equal measure.
romina
(Romina)
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