Der blev den livet op... 1928

Fritz Syberg made this drawing, Der blev den livet op..., with pen on paper. The marks are restless, scratchy – it feels like Syberg was thinking with the pen in his hand, letting the lines find their way. The way the pen loops and zigzags, you get this sense of air, but it's a closed, kind of stifling air. The interior is built from hatching, a web of lines that somehow makes a space. Look at the backs of those figures, the way the pen curves to suggest a shoulder or the fall of fabric – it's almost sculptural. The wall behind the figures is a scribble of darkness. And then there's this box-like structure, maybe a puppet theatre, maybe a cabinet? It becomes this enigmatic anchor, and the writing on the right – is it a note, a thought? It all adds up to a mood, a feeling of being inside a thought, inside a memory. I'm reminded of Marsden Hartley, that same search for something just beyond the grasp.