Skitser af en ko 1864 - 1941

This is an undated sketch of a cow, or rather, skitser af en ko, by Niels Larsen Stevns, made with a humble pencil on paper. Look at how Stevns uses these marks, it's like he's thinking out loud with his pencil. The laid-down cow is a study in weight and stillness; the lines are softer, more blended, giving it a sense of form and presence. The other sketch, just the head, feels more like a fleeting thought, captured with quick, energetic strokes. There's a kind of honesty here, a willingness to show the thinking process, not just the finished product. It reminds me of some of Constable's cloud studies, where the focus is on observation and process rather than perfection. In both cases, there's this sense of the artist trying to understand the world through mark-making, embracing the ambiguity and open-endedness of the creative act.