Udkast til "Kristus velsigner de små børn" 1937 - 1938

Curator: This intriguing sketch is titled "Udkast til 'Kristus velsigner de små børn'" which translates to "Draft for 'Christ Blessing the Little Children,'" created by Niels Larsen Stevns between 1937 and 1938. It’s a pencil and pen drawing. Editor: The composition feels unfinished, almost ethereal, like a memory fading in and out. There’s a deliberate sketchiness here—you can almost feel the artist working out the forms and relationships between figures. It gives it an interesting immediacy. Curator: Absolutely, this rawness adds to its power. Larsen Stevns returned repeatedly to religious subjects. Christ's blessing of children is deeply symbolic. Throughout history it's resonated with concepts of innocence, vulnerability, and the idea of spiritual inheritance. The artist captures the poignant moment when earthly and divine come together. Editor: Looking at the cross-hatching, the way the clothing is indicated so sparsely, you can almost feel the artist’s hand moving rapidly across the page. The paper itself also speaks to the artistic process. We aren’t meant to think of marble or finished canvas, but of something ephemeral. It's a study. How might he think about representing this material reality? Curator: That's a fantastic point about materiality. In choosing this quick medium, Stevns could be highlighting the accessibility and universality of Christ's message. This subject speaks across social and economic divides. By visualizing this narrative in a readily available form, he almost democratizes it. Editor: I agree. The simplicity of the medium enhances this universality. I see something powerful here about capturing movement and human form. Stevns conveys quite an emotion through what is, in many ways, an exercise. You can almost hear children bustling around the central figures. Curator: This piece serves as a reminder that some works resonate precisely because of their incomplete nature. In the very process, we glimpse a soul and idea in its purest form. Editor: It definitely offers a fascinating insight into the labor of art-making, while presenting timeless, resonant symbolism for interpretation.