Udkast til Kains offer 1919

This sketch, Udkast til Kains offer, was made by Joakim Skovgaard, sometime between 1856 and 1933. It's all tentative lines, a real thinking-through-drawing kind of thing. The marks are so delicate; it's like Skovgaard is feeling his way through the story of Cain's offering, not quite sure what it will look like in the end. Look at the way he's drawn the sheep. They're just these soft, almost cloud-like forms, each line searching for the animal’s shape, and on the right, Cain is all hunched up, like a question mark. It reminds me of some of Philip Guston's late drawings, where he's just letting the line wander and find its own way. I love seeing that kind of vulnerability in a drawing, that willingness to let the process be visible. Art's an ongoing conversation, and this drawing is like Skovgaard is inviting us into the middle of his thought process.