I markedsteltet 1863 - 1940

Rasmus Christiansen made this drawing with graphite, and you can tell he’s trying to figure out a tricky scene. I imagine him trying to create this world and the energy in it. It’s like he’s composing a play, right? He had to find the right expression on each face to tell the story. He had to find the right arrangement of each figure around the table in order to capture the mood. The details are so evocative: the smoke billowing from a pipe, the light glinting off a glass, the posture of each figure. I love the cross-hatching and the tiny marks he makes on the figures in the background. He’s really thinking about the Old Masters who used graphic marks to make atmospheric effects. Ultimately, there is something unresolved about the image, and it ends up being more compelling than if he’d gone for a slick realism.