Havskitse 1900 - 1905

Niels Larsen Stevns made this page of sketches in pencil, probably in a small notebook, and he seems to have worked fairly quickly. Look at the repeated, slightly wavering lines, and how they suggest the movement of seaweed in water. I really like the way the pencil marks vary in pressure. You can see how some are soft and blurry, almost disappearing into the page, while others are darker and more defined, giving the impression of depth. The paper itself has a rough texture, and you can see that the tooth of the paper grabs the pencil, creating a kind of broken line. It gives the image a feeling of immediacy, like it was drawn from life, capturing the fleeting movement of things under the sea. This reminds me a little of the work of Marsden Hartley, who also was interested in capturing a sense of place through simple, direct marks. It’s funny how art can feel like a conversation across time, different artists responding to similar questions. I like the ambiguity here, what is represented is felt more than seen.