Udkast til gravmæle for Ludvig og Charlotte Shrøder Askov 1906 - 1910

Editor: Here we have Niels Larsen Stevns’ "Udkast til gravmæle for Ludvig og Charlotte Shrøder Askov", a pencil drawing on paper, made sometime between 1906 and 1910. It's currently at the SMK. I'm immediately drawn to the almost dreamlike quality of the sketch. The lines are so delicate, giving a sense of ethereal lightness to what is essentially a design for a tombstone. What do you see in this piece? Curator: You know, I think you've nailed something essential right off the bat! That sense of ethereal lightness. It reminds me that even in commemorating loss, art can offer a window into…hope? Stevns was deeply interested in form and geometric shapes, and here he is using them not in celebration of life but in meditation on mortality. Do you notice how the shapes, while geometric, are soft and rounded, almost organic? Editor: Yes, I see what you mean. They aren’t harsh or severe. There’s a kind of…gentleness. Curator: Precisely! I think that comes from the hand of the artist – it shows a sensitive hand translating what could have been just measurements and structure, into feeling. Imagine standing before the actual gravestone and tracing those forms with your fingers…would you feel a connection to something beyond just the physical world? Editor: Definitely. Seeing the drawing makes it seem almost…intimate. You feel closer to the artist's process, maybe? Curator: Precisely! It becomes an offering, doesn't it? Almost as if Stevns is inviting us to participate in the process of grieving and remembering. In fact, it reminds me of a verse by Emily Dickinson: “After great pain, a formal feeling comes…” the geometric and controlled feeling gives space and structure when one's own inner world is falling apart. Editor: That’s beautiful. I'll definitely remember that verse when I look at this again. Thanks for pointing that out. I feel I understand the drawing – and perhaps the monument it foreshadows – so much better now.