Skitser af traner. Notat vedr. traner og farveangivelse 1900 - 1905

Niels Larsen Stevns made this sketch of cranes in a notebook. He used pencil, and the strokes are light and quick. It’s as if the cranes were moving as he drew them. I can imagine Stevns sitting somewhere outside, maybe in a field, watching these birds. You can almost feel him trying to capture their essence, their elegance, in just a few lines. Look at the way he’s drawn the necks. So graceful! And the legs, so spindly and precarious. I love the one on the right, it’s so much more heavily worked - much darker and more dense. Did he do that one later from memory? I think about other artists who’ve drawn birds: Durer, Hockney - there’s a conversation happening across time. Artists looking and responding, and inspiring each other. It's like the exchange between us as painters. When you draw something, you really see it, you know? And maybe you can feel it too.