Udkast til "Den barmhjertige Samaritaner" 1937 - 1938

Curator: Here we have a sketch, executed in pencil on paper. It's titled "Udkast til 'Den barmhjertige Samaritaner,'" which translates to "Sketch for 'The Good Samaritan.'" It dates to between 1937 and 1938 and is the work of Niels Larsen Stevns. Editor: The way those pencil lines scrape and dart across the paper… It’s all raw movement. Like watching compassion taking form, isn’t it? It’s more tremor than a full stop. Curator: The story of the Good Samaritan has, over centuries, become deeply embedded in our cultural understanding of compassion, extending beyond its original religious context to symbolize selfless help offered to strangers in need. Editor: Yeah, and Stevns strips it back. No haloes, no easy piety. Look at that injured figure almost swallowed by the sketched-in ground. Are those scratches marks of violence or landscape? The samaritan figure, hunched and blurry, struggles against the indifference around him. Curator: Precisely. The composition lacks classical heroic posing; rather, it emphasizes the vulnerable, earthy humanity of the figures. Consider also, the artist’s choice of medium. The sketch captures the instantaneous emotional and ethical imperative, marking a contrast to any idealized representation. Editor: It makes me wonder, you know? If true goodness doesn’t come easy. If it leaves marks on us, like the pencil on paper. It’s not comfortable, and I would hazard not pretty. Stevns presents the spiritual obligation to love one another and makes it palpable in this hasty scribble. Curator: It becomes a sort of emotional cartography then, each stroke of the pencil marking a turn on the difficult path of moral responsibility. Editor: Beautifully put! Well, I’m leaving with a lump in my throat and a question mark tattooed on my soul! Thanks for that.