Udkast til Ester Balles gravmæle 1906

Niels Larsen Stevns made this sketch for a gravestone for Ester Balle on a page torn from what looks like a school math book. It's all about the process, isn’t it? I love that you can see the ghost of all those squares underneath the sketches, it lets you into the mind of the artist somehow, like you're sitting right there with him. You can see him working out the details. On the right we have these gothic looking crosses above the name and dates. It’s all rendered in very simple strokes, almost like handwriting. And then next to it, you can see a sort of pillar or column, with scribbles where the words would go. The lines are really light and feathery, like he was thinking out loud with the pencil. It reminds me a little bit of Cy Twombly’s sketchbook, or maybe even some of Picasso’s early drawings – that sense of freedom and experimentation. Art's just one big conversation, right? It's not about answers, it's about asking questions, and keeping the dialogue going.