Ornamentstudier 1900 - 1904

Editor: Here we have Niels Larsen Stevns's "Ornamentstudier," created between 1900 and 1904. It’s a drawing done with pencil and colored pencil on paper and held at the SMK, the National Gallery of Denmark. The composition feels like a collection of doodles. How do you interpret this work, given its arrangement and the variety of forms used? Curator: Precisely. We should analyze these forms. Consider the circles, the squares, and then the elaborate scrollwork. The shift in line quality – the delicate shading within the circular forms contrasted with the bolder lines of the larger ornament – this change introduces a visual rhythm, a sense of deliberate layering within the composition. Does this intentional interplay invite different interpretations of space and depth, especially considering how these various studies seem almost unrelated at first glance? Editor: I hadn’t thought about that. I was caught up in how random it appeared. Curator: Is it, though? Consider that even a perceived randomness can itself be a formal choice. Stevns presents the geometry first, circles and grids; then the curves arrive. By emphasizing those changes in forms he calls the viewer’s eye to different levels of the picture plane, thus re-defining our sense of pictorial space. He gives the sense of having multiple drawings co-existing, sharing one material surface. Editor: That makes so much sense. Now I see a structured thought process unfolding before me, not just some casual scribbles. I had previously considered the work as casual and free. Now it's clear how even within this study-like format, he's playing with contrasts. Curator: And we observe and understand that by attending to his arrangement and line work. Seeing its structured use, we understand his intention with more clarity.