Ornamentstudie 1900 - 1904

This is a page from a sketchbook by Niels Larsen Stevns. It is a light pencil sketch on a page that has darkened with age. What strikes me here is the confidence of the line. It’s so simple, so direct. It reminds me of Cy Twombly in a way; that sense of a line being both incredibly studied and utterly free. Look at how the arch is drawn, it almost disappears into the page, but then it’s grounded and given weight by the heavier lines above. The colour of the page itself is so important here; the drawing would be completely different on bright white paper. Instead, the mark-making feels like a kind of excavation, as if Stevns is searching for form within the material itself. It’s a reminder that art is always a conversation between the artist and the medium, a dance of intention and accident.