Udkast til bibelsk komposition, Englen forkynder Jesu opstandelse for kvinderne 1864 - 1941

This is a page from a sketchbook by Niels Larsen Stevns, made with pen or pencil, probably sometime in the early 20th century. I love sketchbooks. There’s a directness, and an intimacy about them. The artist is thinking, working, making decisions right there on the page in front of us. Here, the scene emerges out of a chaos of energetic lines. The angel and the women at Christ’s tomb are described with a flurry of dark marks, hatched and cross-hatched to create depth and shadow. Look at the way the marks curve and swirl around the figures, as if the whole scene is vibrating with energy and emotion. It feels like the artist is grappling with the composition, trying to capture the essence of this pivotal moment. Stevns seems to me to be channeling the same creative and spiritual energy as someone like Emil Nolde, another Scandinavian artist who made expressionist religious paintings. The kind of art that reminds you that uncertainty and searching are baked right into the process.