Skitse af en ulv. Notater 1905 - 1907

Editor: This drawing, "Sketch of a Wolf. Notes," by Niels Larsen Stevns, dating from around 1905, is rather striking. It's a simple pencil sketch on paper, and the wolf's head is depicted in such a raw, almost unsettling way. What jumps out to you? Curator: The immediate thing that strikes me is how the wolf, traditionally a symbol of wilderness and instinct, is rendered in this seemingly domestic setting of a sketchbook page filled with notes. There’s a potent dichotomy. Wolves in art, historically, can represent anything from untamed power to a threat to civilization. Are those notes about color, do you think? "Sort snude, sort, mork bla"... Black snout, dark blue… Perhaps Stevns is trying to capture the psychological weight of this animal, moving beyond a purely representational image. Editor: So, you see a contrast between the wildness of the animal and the structured nature of the sketchbook itself? Curator: Precisely! Think about what the wolf signifies in folklore – cunning, survival, but also danger, the outsider. Here, sketched on lined paper with these intriguing colour observations, its wild essence is somehow tamed, or at least contained. The act of sketching is, after all, an attempt to capture and understand something. Editor: That makes me think about the artist's perspective – their own attempt to reconcile the wild and the domestic, perhaps. Curator: Exactly! And we, as viewers, inherit that reconciliation. We see the wild, represented, captured, considered. Editor: I never thought of the sketchbook itself as part of the symbolism. It gives me a lot to think about. Thanks! Curator: Indeed. These seemingly simple sketches often hold such depth. It’s fascinating how the most primal images carry layered cultural significance, even on something as commonplace as a notebook page.