It was a great responsibility and an enormous pleasure to paint the portrait of Flemming Besenbacher for the Carlsberg Museum, also because it was understood from the beginning that this painting would be the last one showing the same person as chairman of Carlsberg A/S and chairman of the Carlsberg Foundation. Besenbacher has during his presidency of Carlsberg (2012-2022) conceived this division of leadership. The unified direction was originally the idea of J.C. Jacobsen, the founder of the Carlsberg empire.
Reading the excellent book on the Carlsberg history “De klogeste og skarpeste” by Ditlev Tamm (1) and through many conversations with Flemming, I got inspired to create a portrait of Carlsberg from his period, as well as a homage to his vision for Denmark until 2050, “Vision Danmark 2050”: “…so that we in 2050 are living in a society, that’s open, cultivated, solidary, tolerant and future proof, that will create the frame work of THE MEANINGFUL LIFE”. (2)
Thanks to our common ambition, many highly competent and wonderful people were included in the whole process that led to the final work of art. I have thanked them in the speech I held at the presentation in the Carlsberg Museum, that was hosted by Cees t’Hart on 11th of May.
The painting is an expression of the concept “Multiversal realism” where, in this case, 12 very different “parts” or “universes” meet and create a unified simultaneous perception.
The four classic elements for beer brewing (hop, barley, yeast and water) appear in the background to the right, inspired by microscop photographs. The water image, at the bottom, is actually an illustration from one of the approximately 750 published scientific articles by Flemming Besenbacher. (3)
The Carlsberg Laboratory, The Carlsberg Head Quarters by C.F. Møller Architects, Jesus Kirken (the Jacobsen’s “family church”) and Carlsberg Museum, where the painting is now placed, visualize the outer physical components of the past, present and future Carlsberg.
At the bottom left, there is an improvisation upon figures from P.S. Krøyer’s marvellous painting “A meeting in the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters / Det Kongelig Danske Videnskabernes Selskab (266x519cm-1897). The head and hands of Japetus Steenstrup, who was an important advisor for J.C. Jacobsen can be perceived in the pointillistic part.
F.B. came to Barcelona for the sittings to the portrait. He is the first model from outside the artistic and cultural hemisphere to experiment “the Synaesthetic Method of the Four Temperaments” ! The model makes the invisible music of Carl Nielsen 2. Symphony shape his facial expression through each of the four movements. The method demands a very special emotional concentration and I greatly appreciated his disposition and capability of feeling the music. Incidentally, the “Allegro Sanguineo” expression (far right) gave the key to the final face in the painting.
1) “De klogeste og skarpeste – Historien om Carlsbergfondet, bryggeriet og vores øl”. Ditlev Tamm. Gyldendal 2018.
2) “VISION DANMARK 2050”. Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, Voluntás and Carlsbergfondet 2021.
3) “Evidence of Stranski-Krastanov growth at the initial stage of atmospheric water condensation”. Jie Song, Qiang Li, Xiaofeng Wang, Jingyan Li, Shuai Zhang, Jørgen Kjems, Flemming Besenbacher and Mingdong Dong. Nature Communications Sep. 2014.
Happy Pentecost!
Glædelig Pinse!
¡Feliz Pentecostés!
Lars Physant, Barcelona 4th June 2022