Oehlenschlægers venstre og højre hånd. Skitse til "Engen ved Nysø" 1930 - 1936

Curator: Looking at this drawing, I’m immediately struck by how ephemeral it feels, almost like a fleeting thought captured on paper. It has a lovely sense of spontaneity. Editor: This work by Niels Larsen Stevns, titled "Oehlenschlægers venstre og højre hånd. Skitse til \"Engen ved Nysø,\"" or "Oehlenschlager's left and right hand. Sketch for \"The Meadow by Nysø,"" made between 1930 and 1936, is a preparatory sketch using pencil. We can appreciate it today thanks to the SMK, the National Gallery of Denmark. Curator: A study of hands, how very academic! But there is also something quite haunting about them. What exactly did hands represent to Stevns, beyond mere dexterity? Editor: The hands holding a rod may represent control, agency. Perhaps a representation of Oehlenschläger as an artist? Think of a conductor's baton. We see him trying to translate creative energy and command on a large scale to this smaller drawing. It speaks to the challenges of artistic creation. Curator: Yes! The rod almost looks like a divining rod, seeking to unearth something. The incompleteness, the lack of clear definition, speaks to searching—for meaning, for form, for something hidden. It resonates with themes of Romanticism and the symbolist movement too. The sketch embodies this push and pull, the yearning to make the invisible, visible. Editor: Considering that this sketch serves as preparation for his painting "The Meadow by Nysø", do you find anything familiar about it when juxtaposed with his final painting? Curator: Absolutely. Hands hold so much symbolic weight across cultures and time, don't they? They build, they destroy, they create, they bless. Stevns focuses not just on the hand as a physical object but also what that represents. How interesting! Editor: Indeed. Well, I’ve certainly found something new to contemplate. A brief encounter leaving a lasting impression. Curator: I wholeheartedly agree. These gestures certainly resonate long after that first glance.