Fiskeskitser 1905 - 1907

Curator: Welcome. Today we are looking at "Fiskeskitser," or "Fish Sketches" by Niels Larsen Stevns, made sometime between 1905 and 1907. It's currently held at the SMK, the Statens Museum for Kunst. Editor: Immediately, the thing that strikes me is the almost melancholic nature of this quickly rendered drawing. Is it the suggestion of mortality or the still life tradition reflected? It evokes a particular mood despite the humble material, just a simple pencil on paper. Curator: The composition, you'll notice, emphasizes the sinuous lines of the fish. Stevns focuses intensely on form rather than capturing every realistic detail. Note also how the linear quality creates movement. It gives the impression that the fish has only just come to rest on the page, creating this duality. Editor: I wonder about the act of sketching here and what that implies in relation to Stevns's place in the broader narratives of Danish artistic identity. Was he perhaps investigating the nation's dependency and identity from fishing and its surrounding social and economical systems? Curator: The swift strokes imply spontaneity. The grid lines on the paper lend structure, contrasting the sketch’s fluidity, and provide this underlying rhythm. Perhaps the fish represents ideas of artistic freedom restrained, subtly. Editor: Placing it within the timeframe of its creation opens all kinds of interesting interpretive pathways too, what other sketches from the same sketchbook were there and what does this subject imply to the broader environmental changes which have begun in fishing due to mass over fishing? It begs the question, what’s at stake for the painter? Curator: Undoubtedly, "Fiskeskitser" offers an intriguing study in line and form. Thank you for considering how it engages and invites us to consider more closely. Editor: Precisely, these unassuming strokes challenge us to recognize the deeper connections, making the unseen seen.