Interior with Seated Figure 1941

Niels Larsen Stevns made this oil painting of a seated figure in an interior, and wow, does it make you think about the act of painting itself. I imagine Stevns, brush loaded, circling the canvas, unsure, but then, boom, committing to a stroke, then another, finding the figure through layers of dark and light. It’s like he's feeling his way through the fog. There’s something so physical about the way the paint sits on the canvas. I can almost feel the push and pull of his brush. Look at how the strokes around the figure’s hands almost dissolve into the background. I bet Stevns was thinking about how to capture a feeling, an atmosphere, more than a likeness. It's like a conversation, an exchange of ideas happening right there on the canvas. Artists talking to each other across time, inspiring each other to keep pushing, keep questioning. Painting, it’s all about that messy, beautiful, uncertain process of trying to see.