Studier af forskellige fuglearter 1864 - 1941

This page of bird studies was made with pencil by Niels Larsen Stevns. You can see how the graphite glides across the page, sketching out different beaks and feet, and the neck and body of a goose. I can just imagine the artist sitting quietly, maybe by a pond, observing these creatures with such care. It's like he's trying to understand their essence, not just their appearance, and capture the gesture of a bird. What's cool here is that the artist isn't trying to give us the finished bird, rather, it is an attempt to know a bird. Each mark feels like a question, a testing of form, a pursuit that makes space for the viewer's own imagination. Painters are always in conversation, you know? We learn from each other, riffing off what came before. It's a constant push and pull, where the real magic happens in those in-between spaces, in the not-knowing.