Landskabsskitse 1900 - 1905

This landscape sketch, made by Niels Larsen Stevns, is all gentle pencil lines on a small page. You can almost feel the artist’s hand moving across the paper, finding the horizon, the contours of the land. I imagine Stevns out there, maybe a little chilly, quickly trying to capture the essence of the scene. There's something very intimate about a sketch; it's like a thought caught in action. The texture is minimal, but those soft lines create depth and distance, suggesting so much with so little. It reminds me of other landscape artists, all those who’ve tried to pin down the fleeting beauty of the natural world. There's a conversation happening across time, a shared love of observation and mark-making. Each artist builds on what came before, adding their own unique touch. It makes you think about how we see, and how that seeing gets translated into something tangible.