Kompositionsskitse, til relief? 1932 - 1935

This pencil sketch was made by Niels Larsen Stevns, though we don’t know exactly when. What I love about a drawing like this is seeing how the artist is thinking through the image, how the lines are searching, not declarative. There’s a transparency here, a lack of ego, that invites us into the process of image-making. You can see how the marks build up, the hesitations and corrections, a kind of beautiful vulnerability. Look at the lower section of the drawing: the lines are so light, so tentative, like he’s feeling his way through the dark. It makes me think about the physicality of drawing, the hand moving across the page, the pressure of the pencil, the resistance of the paper. This reminds me of Giacometti’s drawings – not in style, but in the way they capture a sense of searching, of never quite arriving at a fixed image. Art isn't about answers; it’s about the questions.