Studie til anden mellem skræppebladene 1928

This is Studie til anden mellem skræppebladene, by Fritz Syberg. He made it as a study, a kind of experiment in mark-making. I imagine Syberg outside in the landscape, squinting to really see the negative spaces between these plants, maybe reeds? He's trying to catch the light filtering through the dense foliage. You can almost feel him, pencil in hand, quickly mapping out the composition, trying to capture something fleeting, something alive in that moment. It's like he's thinking through the pencil, figuring it out as he goes. Look at the way the lines build up, layer upon layer, to suggest depth and form. And how the marks are so varied – some are light and feathery, others dark and assertive. Syberg is in conversation with other artists through the ages. You see artists do this kind of work as they explore and discover. It's like they’re all talking to each other in this secret language of mark-making, each adding their own voice to the conversation.