To kompositionsudkast til maleriet "Kristus skriver i sandet", 1908 1906 - 1907

Niels Larsen Stevns made these compositional sketches for the painting "Christ Writing in the Sand" in 1908 using pencil. It’s like catching the artist mid-thought, right? I love how this piece exposes the bones of the painting, the structure beneath the skin. You can see the grid where Larsen Stevns has worked out the groupings. Look at the rapid, searching lines in the lower composition. There's an economy to these marks, they are a means to an end. But, there's also an energy in the layering of the strokes. Then look at the top composition, see how the artist is working out the placement of the figure of Christ, trying out different poses for him, kneeling, standing? Each placement subtly shifts the entire mood, the emphasis on shame, or perhaps forgiveness. Thinking about the physicality of mark-making always gets me thinking about other artists who work serially, like Philip Guston or even Gerhard Richter, where the process of development becomes as important as the final image, or maybe more so. Anyway, art’s an ongoing conversation, isn’t it?