Skitser af hunde 1905 - 1907

Curator: Looking at these scribbled forms, I'm immediately reminded of dogs I’ve known - perhaps their energy, more than their form, captured. Editor: Here we have "Skitser af Hunde" or "Sketches of Dogs," a charcoal drawing by Niels Larsen Stevns dating back to 1905-1907. It’s part of the collection here at the SMK, the Statens Museum for Kunst. What about it sparks your interest in canines so directly? Curator: It's the lines, really. The speed and the economy of them. They feel almost archetypal. As if these are dogs pulled from some collective canine unconscious. Do you know Jung talked about something like this! Editor: A bold claim, perhaps, but I see your point about capturing a primal essence. This makes me consider our long relationship with domesticated dogs. The sketched style seems apt – hinting at something familiar, yet just out of grasp. Curator: Precisely! Dogs appear across countless cultures, carrying varied symbolic weights—loyalty, guardianship, the underworld in some beliefs, the hunt, healing... it's endlessly rich. There is a weight in his scribbled outlines, even if on the surface its fleeting gesture. Editor: Yes, these aren't portraits of particular pets; they’re something more distilled. Considering the period when Stevns was making this work, around the turn of the century... it could tie into contemporary anxieties about nature, instinct, and domestication... How to negotiate with a dog at that time? Curator: Good point! You read more social anxieties here - very fair, given what we now understand about urban planning, overcrowding, poverty, the treatment of animals in cities around the world! I simply find it personally poignant – a connection to the enduring image of ‘dog.’ Almost an emblem more than an observed likeness. Editor: I find my understanding changes through conversation like this! A deceptively simple sketch unlocks layered discussions. Stevns may have unwittingly captured multiple threads simultaneously – artistic and symbolic both. Curator: Indeed. Every viewing of art, I like to remember, is itself, an active form of art creation. Our interpretations change based on lived experience as much as anything that Niels Larsen Stevns consciously knew as he picked up the charcoal. Editor: On that introspective note, I will ponder this dog some more as I continue on through this exhibit!