Forest near Bagsværd Lake 1941

Niels Larsen Stevns made this painting of the Forest near Bagsværd Lake with oil on canvas. Look how Stevns builds the image with these chunky, almost haphazard strokes. It's like he's not trying to capture the scene so much as he's trying to recreate the act of seeing itself. The texture's key here, right? The paint is laid on so thick in places, like in that foreground of purple and brown, it's practically sculptural. And then you've got these moments of transparency, where the canvas peeks through like the pale pinks of the sky. It makes you think about how the materiality of paint can evoke an experience, a feeling. Check out how he's rendered the light filtering through the trees on the right. It's not about photographic accuracy, it's about capturing the sensation of light, the way it flickers and dances. Makes me think of the way Cezanne uses color to construct space. They're both inviting us to see the world, and painting, in a whole new way.