Studie af Jens Baggesen efter maleri på Frederiksborg 1930 - 1938

Niels Larsen Stevns made this drawing of Jens Baggesen with a pencil on paper. You can see all the layering that has happened on the page – the artist has gone over the same lines again and again, building up this image. I can imagine Stevns, in front of the painting at Frederiksborg, trying to capture something of Baggesen’s spirit. See how the lines around his face are scribbled in quite roughly, suggesting a certain energy or restlessness? It's like Stevns is trying to quickly grab the essence of the man, from an earlier painting of him. It reminds me of how we, as artists, are always in conversation with those who came before us, riffing on their ideas, reinterpreting their visions. And in this drawing, Stevns isn't just copying; he's engaging, thinking, feeling his way through the portrait of Baggesen. It’s this act of engagement which makes looking at art so rewarding.