The self-portrait is to be placed in a broom cupboard in the exhibition. It is not really art compared to the works it will be hanging alongside – which are, after all, the very finest according to my taste: Munch, Hammershøi and so on. So we should not make any fuss of it.

I’ve been heavily criticised for the fact that the drop of blood hangs on the wrong side, but I envision this as a moving image, where the young Lars – the pretentious Lars – has just looked down to the left before turning his head towards the camera at this moment. I applied to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts with this picture – so, clearly, there’s a very good reason I didn’t get in.