Studie af Napoleon. Efter maleri på Frederiksborg? 1930 - 1938

This rapid sketch of Napoleon by Niels Larsen Stevns, probably made with graphite pencil, feels so immediate, doesn't it? I can almost see Larsen Stevns hunched over his sketchbook, rapidly capturing the essence of a painted portrait, maybe at Frederiksborg. It's all about speed, a desire to seize the subject, to reduce Napoleon to a few lines. Look at the frantic energy in the marks that define the coat, and the delicate shaping around the jaw. I wonder what Larsen Stevns was thinking? Was it an exercise in capturing character, an attempt to understand the psychology of a famous figure? Or was he simply interested in the formal challenge? Maybe it's both - artists are magpies, collecting images and ideas and trying to make something new from them! And maybe he was in dialogue with other artists working at the time, like, say, Munch, all trying to figure out what it means to be alive and to make art.