Stendysse. Haldskovvænge 1911

Joakim Skovgaard made this pencil drawing, titled 'Stendysse. Haldskovvænge', on a piece of paper that’s just a bit bigger than your average postcard. He seems to have been interested in ways of seeing, thinking and experiencing this ancient site in Denmark. There's a lot of air around the subject, open space, and you can feel that Skovgaard took care not to weigh it down, using a light and transparent material. The drawing is delicate, almost tentative, as if he’s feeling his way through the scene. Look closely, and you’ll see these tiny, almost scribbled marks around the base of the stone. They suggest the texture of the earth, the growth of the grass, the general wildness of the landscape. There’s an attempt to describe something, but there is also a lot of erasure. Skovgaard may have looked at the work of other landscape artists, like Johan Christian Dahl. But ultimately, it seems to me, that Skovgaard is seeking his own way of seeing. It's like he’s saying, “Okay, nature, let's try to have a conversation.” And the conversation is this drawing.