Skitse af et ansigt 1902 - 1905

This simple face was sketched by Niels Larsen Stevns, but we don’t know when. The thing I find interesting is how, with just a few light, searching lines, Larsen Stevns manages to suggest so much volume and shadow. You can almost feel the bone structure beneath the skin. Look how the strokes around the nose and mouth are darker, more insistent. They ground the sketch, giving weight to those features. Then, above the head, you've got these looser, more playful curls, as if the artist is just warming up, or thinking out loud. It reminds me that art isn't just about perfect representation. It's about the process, the exploration, the conversation between the artist and the paper. You can see this same sense of searching in the early portraits of someone like Picasso. That willingness to leave things open, unresolved - that's where the real magic happens. It invites us to participate, to fill in the blanks with our own imaginations.