Studie af soldat liggende på ryggen set forfra i stærk forkortning 1923 - 1924

Niels Larsen Stevns made this drawing of a soldier on his back with graphite on paper. Look at the pressure of that pencil! It’s like Stevns is wrestling with space, trying to capture this foreshortened figure, the weight and awkwardness of it all. You can feel him thinking, adjusting, and re-thinking with each stroke. I love seeing the ghost of earlier lines, those corrections are what makes the drawing feel alive. I imagine Stevns pacing around his model, squinting, maybe even holding up a hand to measure the angles. He’s not just copying what he sees, but really trying to understand the body in space, the shadow it casts, and the way the light falls across the form. Drawing, like painting, is a form of inquiry. It's a back and forth between eye, hand, and mind. And it's through that process that the image slowly emerges.