Plante- og koglestudie 1906 - 1910

Niels Larsen Stevns made this plant and cone study with a graphite pencil on paper. The quickness of the strokes makes you wonder about the artist’s experience in nature. Was he hurrying to capture the last bit of light? Or maybe he was just trying to catch the essence of these objects. The strokes build the image from the bottom up. The plant life is sparse, a couple of lines extending from the page. Then, our focus meets the cone, densely shaded with tight marks, and the plant seems to have been the afterthought, or perhaps the other way round? It reminds me of being a student. When you look at this, you can tell he really looked at nature. I can feel his hand trying to figure out what he saw!