Studier af bygninger 1930 - 1936

Niels Larsen Stevns made this drawing, "Studier af bygninger," with pencil on paper. It’s a lovely example of how something can be both a study and a complete work. Look closely, and you can see the ghost of erasures, the pentimento that reveals the artist's hand searching for the line. It's a process of finding form. Notice how some lines are tentative, almost like whispers, while others are more confident and defined. This contrast gives the sketch a real sense of depth and movement. The linear quality of the marks and the bareness of the composition reminds me of Giorgio Morandi, who found endless possibilities in the shapes of bottles. Like Morandi, Stevns sees the poetry in the everyday, the quiet beauty in a row of buildings. It’s about seeing, thinking, and experiencing the world. And maybe, also, about the not-seeing, the suggestive openness of the unfinished.