Studier af heste 1864 - 1941

Curator: Niels Larsen Stevns's "Studier af heste," dating from 1864 to 1941, offers a fleeting glimpse into the artist's process. The pencil drawing, housed here at the SMK, captures the essence of equine forms with an immediacy and delicate touch. Editor: It’s wispy, isn’t it? The kind of sketch you find tucked in the back of a forgotten book, promising a world that hasn’t quite materialized. There’s something about these half-formed shapes that speaks to possibility and fleeting moments. Curator: Precisely. Note how Stevns employs contour lines, barely there, to suggest the mass and volume of the horses. The overlapping lines create a sense of depth despite the drawing’s minimalist nature. He uses pencil hatching that hints to texture and weight. Editor: It's like catching whispers of horses. They feel more ethereal than earthly. Does that faintness enhance their perceived power somehow? I can imagine them just dissolving away at any moment. Curator: Interesting thought! His focus really seems to be less on representational accuracy and more about the movement of these majestic animals. It makes you feel the nervous energy he must have seen in these creatures, as if he's sketching mid-gallop, doesn't it? Editor: Absolutely! I'm reminded of Degas and his dancers, those raw initial impressions which contain more life in them somehow. As though that sense of raw immediacy transmits some of their animal energy. There’s real drama there, even though it is sketched very simply. Curator: This work reminds us of the significance of drawings. More than a simple outline, these are often how we get access to a private, experimental, side of an artist. A place where the image is still trying to come into being, so to speak. Editor: It almost feels improper to be looking at it. As if we're rummaging through the personal things of someone very important, or reading an old diary with sketches on the edges of the pages. And in so doing, seeing them with new clarity and in a wholly more vibrant way than something on a large canvas could ever transmit.