Udkast til Ester Balles gravmæle 1906

This sketch, by Niels Larsen Stevns, gives us a glimpse into the tender process of commemorating someone's life through art. It’s all in pencil, on what looks like graph paper, which feels immediate and intimate. I can almost feel Stevns’s hand moving across the paper, trying out different forms, like he’s feeling his way through a maze of emotions. The lines are tentative, searching. I wonder if he knew Ester Balle personally. I imagine he's trying to capture not just a likeness but a feeling, an essence. The crosses, the inscriptions—they're all part of a visual language that speaks to memory, loss, and remembrance. And that braided border on one of the designs, that is quite striking. It makes me think about what it means to create a lasting tribute, something that speaks across time. I wonder what Brancusi would have made of this. I mean, all artists are colluding, right? Looking, borrowing, responding, arguing... it is one long conversation through time.