An Artist in Copehagen

A young family from Copehagen.

An artist doing sketches.

He’s from here, but lived everywhere. His father was Indian. He has a friend in Sweden he will visit later in the year.

He is sketching the couple’s young boy and offers him candy. He talks with the couple. The woman asks to see what he is drawing. He shows her. They talk, and the artist promises to come visit them when he travels to Europe.

The woman complains that the boy will not sit still long enough to be properly sketched and painted. The artist promises that he will draw the boy when they meet again in Copenhagen.

The family slowly approaches, one by one, as increasing familiarity somehow also increases curiosity, or at least diminishes the barriers.

The artist asks the boy his name. The boy does not understand English, may not understand any language yet. The father understands some English, but less than the young woman does.

His name is Julius, the father offers, Conqueror of the World. The artist laughs as the parents laugh, together.

The artist has managed in glimpses and starts to capture the face of the boy. He apologizes and insists it is just a quick sketch, even as he hands the sheet of paper to the family as a gift and a promise of their future meeting in Copehagen.