Blad med tre indrammede udkast til første Leonora Christine billeder samt en blomsterstudie 1869 - 1870

This sketch, by Kristian Zahrtmann, offers a peek into the artistic process of creating historical paintings. Executed in pencil on paper, it's a study sheet featuring three framed sketches for Leonora Christine images, alongside a botanical drawing. The ephemeral nature of pencil allows Zahrtmann to rapidly explore different compositions and figure arrangements, giving us insight into his initial ideas, and the labor that goes into producing a finished painting. The artist used the immediacy of the pencil medium to capture the emotion, and social situations of his historical subject. Zahrtmann was deeply engaged with the history of painting. Here, he draws on past artistic traditions, yet the immediacy of the sketch is distinctly modern. This work encourages us to appreciate the process of artistic creation, not just the final product, and how it informs the meaning and significance of the artwork.