"On December 1873 he started on his own large screen, for which he got much material help from various sides. The published Reitzel sent him engravings and English illustrated magazines; the court photographer, Hansen, gave him 150 photographs of famous Danish men and women, Others procured him pictures from Germany and issues of the Danish magazine "Illustreret Tidende"... The eight panels of the screen were so designed that each of them was devoted to expressing an idea, and common to the whole series is the high horizontal line, with the most distinguished persons and buildings at the top, and below, in roughly historical order, the most important writers, politicians and scientists of the respective countries, ending with the ones nearest Andersen. ... The screen had its place in the bedroom of Andersen's flat in Nyhaven, near to Amalienborg, the royal residence in Copenhagen. He mentions in his diary the trouble it was prizing it into his sitting-room one day when the Crown Prince visted him. From his bed, the ageing and ailing author could look out on the cultural landscape his life had led him through." pp 106-7
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