Landskab med stubmølle 1902 - 1903

Niels Larsen Stevns made this landscape with a stub mill using graphite on paper. I imagine him outside, squinting in the wind, scribbling away with his pencil. The lines are raw and immediate. The sky is rendered with quick, energetic strokes, conveying movement and atmosphere. I wonder what the landscape looked like. I wonder what Niels felt? There's a sense of urgency in his mark-making, as though he’s racing to capture the fleeting essence of the scene before it disappears. The whole thing feels like a memory, partially obscured, waiting to be pieced together. Think of other landscape painters like Van Gogh or even Constable, how they made the ordinary look amazing with marks on a page. Each artist builds on the last! That's what's so great about art. It keeps changing, morphing, and moving us to see the world differently.