"Stilfærdig samtale" 1897 - 1949

Robert Storm Petersen made this drawing "Stilfærdig samtale" with graphite on paper, and just look at the way the graphite is built up! It's so smudgy and dense. I can imagine him there, almost in a trance, pushing and pulling the graphite across the surface. What kind of conversation are these men having? I feel like they are figures from his imagination. I'm kind of in love with this drawing. The gentle gradations of tone, achieved just with pencil on paper, creates an amazing atmospheric effect. The rotund men emerge from the background like soft sculptures. It makes me wonder about the tradition of caricature and social commentary in drawing. Petersen captures the spirit of these men without needing a lot of detail. It’s sort of a dance between representation and something else, something felt, that is so potent here. It makes me realize how we're all just borrowing and riffing off each other, trying to make something new out of something old.