Hejbøl Bonde 1921

Niels Skovgaard made this drawing, Hejbøl Bonde, with ink on paper, but when is anyone's guess! What jumps out is the sheer mark-making – the furious hatching and cross-hatching that builds this intense, almost gothic scene. See the way the ink seems to pool and darken, creating areas of deep shadow and contrast. It reminds me of the way some abstract painters build up layers of texture. Skovgaard isn't afraid to let the medium do its thing. Look at the writhing figure in the foreground – is it a monster, a demon? Or maybe just a very bad dream… The way the lines are so dense and tangled, it’s hard to tell what you’re looking at, and I love that ambiguity. Think of Goya’s darker etchings, all those nightmarish visions made real through the magic of ink. It's a reminder that art can be a space for exploring the messy, unresolved, and often unsettling aspects of our inner lives.