Plante- og figurstudie 1906 - 1910

Niels Larsen Stevns made this little graphite drawing on paper, called Plante- og figurstudie, and it's now at the SMK in Copenhagen. The image shows a spiky leaf and some loose gestural sketches of plants and a figure. It's like we’re peeking into the artist's sketchbook, right? I wonder if Niels was like me, always sketching on the go, trying to catch a glimpse of something fleeting. What was he thinking when he set down these first, tentative lines? As a fellow artist, I often find myself in a dialogue with other artists and their works. This drawing feels like a moment of intimate exchange, a quiet meditation on form and line. The loose, searching quality of the marks reminds us that painting and drawing are a way of thinking. A way to work through the world!