Landskabsskitse 1900 - 1905

Niels Larsen Stevns made this landscape sketch with pencil on paper. It's like a visual shorthand, a jotted note of a place, but it speaks volumes. The marks are tentative, searching, aren't they? You can almost feel the artist squinting, trying to capture the essence of the scene. Look at the way the lines build up, layer upon layer, to create the impression of the land meeting the sea. See the texture that emerges from the build-up of marks. It reminds us that art is as much about the process as the final image. In a way, this sketch feels like a cousin to the landscapes of someone like Per Kirkeby, who also embraced the rough and ready. It suggests the way that art is an ongoing conversation, an exchange of ideas across generations. There is such openness, and it embraces the beauty of ambiguity.