Udkast til "Kristus velsigner de små børn" 1937 - 1938

Niels Larsen Stevns made this sketch, "Udkast til 'Kristus velsigner de små børn'", or "Draft for 'Christ Blessing the Little Children'", with pen on paper. It's all about the energy of the line! Look at how Stevns uses these quick, hatching marks to create form and shadow. It's not about perfection; it's about capturing a moment, an idea. I love how the figures are defined with such simple strokes, like the child in the center almost glowing with light. You can practically feel the artist's hand moving across the page. There's a raw, unfiltered quality here, an immediacy, it reminds me a little of some of Guston's looser works. This piece invites us to see the world not as a fixed image, but as something always in process, always becoming.