Studie af Thorvaldsen efter Eckersbergs maleri (1814) 1932 - 1935

Niels Larsen Stevns made this drawing after a painting in 1814, though no one knows exactly when. It’s a study, a way of looking and understanding through making. There’s a real sense of process here, in the layering of lines, the visible corrections and adjustments. It’s like watching the artist think, the marks feeling raw and tentative. The lines aren’t precious, there's a kind of honesty in the scratches and the pentimenti, which bring a sense of vitality to the image. Look at how the shading on the face is built up with these hatched lines, giving a real feeling of volume, of bone structure beneath the skin. It’s a detail that brings the figure to life. In this way, the artist takes something old and finds something new, using a work from the past as the starting point to explore his own vision. It reminds me of Picasso's reinterpretations of classic works, a conversation across time. It suggests that art is never really finished, always open to new interpretations, new ways of seeing.