Ansigtsstudier 1900 - 1904

Niels Larsen Stevns made these face studies in pencil, likely in a sketchbook. There’s an immediacy here, in the quick, searching lines, that gets at something essential about the act of drawing. Look at the way he’s built up the forms with these small, almost hesitant marks. It's like he's feeling his way around the shapes, adjusting and refining as he goes, always in process. I’m drawn to the cluster of lines around the central figure's hair. See how they seem to vibrate with energy, a dense thicket of graphite that suggests both form and light? The smudgy quality gives it a real sense of volume. This piece reminds me of the drawings of Käthe Kollwitz, who similarly used line to convey deep emotion and human vulnerability. Like her, Stevns seems to be less interested in perfect representation than in capturing the essence of his subjects, the fleeting expressions and inner lives.