Art in Literature - Bente Scavenius and Rakel Haslund Gjerrild

Art in Literature - Bente Scavenius: Sunday 25 October 2026, 15:00–17:00, Hårbøllehuset, Askeby. Tickets cost 200 kr.

Art historian Bente Scavenius returns to Scene1 for a conversation with author Rakel Haslund Gjerrild about her exofictional novel 'Adam in Paradise'.

The novel centres on painter Kristian Zahrtmann's life during the Modern Breakthrough and the Great Morality Debate. At 70 and at the height of his career, Zahrtmann paints the nude model Adam surrounded by exotic plants - an image that radiates desire and eroticism, challenging the era's ideas about gender roles and sexuality. In Zahrtmann's circle we find freethinkers such as Georg Brandes and Herman Bang.

The novel addresses the social norms of the time and the perception of homosexuality as abnormal and criminal, though only by implication. Whether Zahrtmann himself was homosexual remains uncertain - yet many of his paintings clearly express male eroticism. The book thus engages with the ongoing debate about the right to control one's own body and gender.