Skitse af stiliseret landskab med farveangivelser ovenpå halvudviskede notater 1905 - 1907

This landscape sketch by Niels Larsen Stevns, made sometime between 1864 and 1941, offers a peek into the artist’s mind at work. It's a quiet, intimate piece, made with graphite on paper, a sort of visual thinking. I imagine Stevns hunched over this notebook, maybe outdoors, rapidly jotting down not just lines and forms, but color notes too. There's a kind of restless energy here; you can almost feel his hand moving across the page, trying to capture the essence of the landscape before it disappears. The thinness of the graphite lines creates a delicate, almost ephemeral quality, like a memory fading at the edges. He’s really feeling the landscape; a sense of color and form emerges. And those notes layered over the sketch? They’re like whispers of thoughts, adding another layer of depth and complexity. Maybe he was thinking about the architecture of the landscape or jotting down ideas for a larger painting. It's a reminder that art is always a process of layering, of building up meaning and form through trial and error. Like all artists, Stevns is in conversation with a range of influences. It’s interesting to see what he makes of them.