Dyreskitse 1900 - 1905

This is Niels Larsen Stevns’ ‘Dyreskitse’, or ‘Animal Sketch’ in English, made with pencil on paper. I love the tentativeness of these lines, like Stevns is feeling out the form of the animal. There’s a looseness and openness to the marks, nothing is fixed, everything is in process. Look how the pencil lines vary in weight and pressure, some are dark and decisive, others are so light they almost disappear. It’s like a conversation, a back and forth between the artist and the subject. I wonder, what kind of animal is it? The sketchiness only adds to the mystery. What is so great about these sketches, is how they let us into the artist's world and give us a glimpse of their thinking. This reminds me of some of Philip Guston’s later, more cartoonish drawings, not in style, but in spirit – that sense of play and experimentation, of not being afraid to make a mess. Art should be like that, I think, more questions than answers.