Figurstudier 1906 - 1910

This page of figure studies was made by Niels Larsen Stevns, and looking at the groupings of graphite lines, I can imagine him bent over a small sketchbook trying to figure something out. Maybe he was interested in quickly mapping out the form and shape of a body in space. I see repeated marks and shapes, the artist is thinking aloud on paper—a way of seeing, feeling, and experiencing the world. The page feels like a conversation with himself, each gesture informing the next, a dialogue between eye, hand, and mind. You know when you repeat a word over and over again, and it starts to lose its meaning? I wonder, was Larsen Stevns trying to reach a deeper meaning, or was the repetition a process of emptying out? Either way, you can tell he was really in the zone! It reminds me that artists are always in conversation, exchanging ideas across time, inspiring each other’s creativity. These studies are like seeds of ideas, a space of possibility around the artwork.