Landskabsstudie 1930 - 1936

Curator: Editor: This is "Landskabsstudie," a landscape study by Niels Larsen Stevns, created between 1930 and 1936, using watercolor and other mixed media. It's giving me a dreamy, almost unfinished quality with those loose strokes of colour. What do you see when you look at this? Curator: Well, the immediacy of the medium speaks volumes. We have mixed media – watercolour, coloured pencil – laid bare in a sketch. It prompts us to consider Stevns’s labour: the act of rapidly recording a fleeting impression. Editor: I see that, but wouldn’t focusing on labour reduce it to just work, ignoring the artistic intent? Curator: Not at all! By examining the production, we reveal the choices Stevns made. Why watercolour? Was it cost? Convenience for plein air painting? How does that influence the work's final appearance and communicate a specific relationship with the land depicted? It changes our understanding of his 'artistic intent'. Editor: So, the materials aren’t just about the image, but also the making? Curator: Precisely. What does using mixed media in this specific configuration suggest about his priorities? Is it about capturing the raw data of visual experience, or constructing a romantic landscape for consumption? Editor: Interesting. It makes me think about the market for landscapes back then, and whether Stevns was responding to it, or perhaps rebelling. Curator: Exactly. Looking at his materials pushes us to think critically about the social and economic factors involved. It certainly gives me a new appreciation for landscape art! Editor: Me too. Thinking about art this way is very eye-opening, stepping away from just aesthetic value.