Studie af husgavl 1900 - 1904

Niels Larsen Stevns made this study of a gable of a house with pencil on paper. There’s a real casualness to the lines, like the quick jottings of someone just trying to capture a fleeting impression. You can almost feel the artist’s hand moving across the page, deciding what to include and what to leave out. The texture of the paper peeks through, giving a sense of immediacy. A curious combination of architectural structure and organic form emerges from the composition. Is that a sunflower, or some other kind of botanical form to the left? It reminds me a little of some of Philip Guston’s looser, more whimsical drawings, where representation is just a jumping-off point for something else entirely. Ultimately, it's the not knowing for sure that makes it so compelling.