Løse rids 1900 - 1905

Niels Larsen Stevns made this graphite drawing in a sketchbook, we don’t know exactly when. The light grey lines barely touch the page, but they suggest something to the eye. There's the form of a figure, or maybe a few. Larsen Stevns is working something out. He’s thinking through drawing. I can imagine him with his sketchbook in the park, quickly trying to catch movement and light. It reminds me of sketches by Cézanne, those provisional lines searching for form, the weight of a body. There is a kind of freedom here, a refusal to be pinned down. These marks have a life of their own, it’s like seeing the artist's thought process. These drawings remind us that art is a conversation across time. And that uncertainty and ambiguity can be a source of beauty and meaning.