Landskab med stubmølle 1902 - 1903

Niels Larsen Stevns made this landscape with a post mill sometime around the turn of the century, probably in preparation for a larger painting. It’s a quick sketch, just pencil on paper, with a real sense of immediacy. You can see how Larsen Stevns is working out the composition, mapping out the landscape with these energetic, scratchy lines. Look at the way he’s rendered the sky, with these swirling, almost chaotic marks, and how that contrasts with the more controlled, horizontal lines of the land. There’s a real sense of movement here, a feeling of the wind blowing through the scene. And then, there's that little post mill, almost lost in the landscape, but anchoring the whole composition. It reminds me of early drawings by Van Gogh, that same interest in the everyday, in finding beauty in the mundane. It’s a reminder that art isn't about perfection, but about process, about seeing and feeling.