Skitser af dyreskelet 1864 - 1941

Niels Larsen Stevns made this animal skeleton sketch with pencil on paper. You can see the marks he made as he worked to understand the form. It is not about the perfect line, but about the way he felt and thought as he drew. I love the way the sketch is on grid paper, it reminds us that even something as scientific as an animal skeleton can be looked at with an artistic eye. The lines are light, and transparent, and he's not trying to hide the process. He even leaves in the little zig zag lines at the bottom of the page, marks to test the pencil and the paper. The overall effect is light and almost playful. You might think of other artists such as Picasso who also looked at the world in fragmented, interesting ways. Art is just another way of thinking.