Udkast til maleriet "Hæcuba" 1916

J.A. Jerichau (II) made this ink sketch called “Draft for the Painting Hecuba” at some point in his short life. It's all about the energy of the lines, the quick, scratchy marks building up to suggest form and space. You can almost feel Jerichau working through his ideas, trying things out. The texture is raw and immediate. It's like seeing the artist's thought process laid bare. The figures are loosely defined, but full of emotion. Look at the dark, scribbled figure on the left – it's all frantic energy. Then, there's the arched doorway, rendered with these confident strokes, framing the scene like a stage. The tension between the controlled lines of the architecture and the wilder marks of the figures is really interesting. Jerichau died very young, but the urgency and directness of his mark-making reminds me of Egon Schiele. Both artists share a kind of restless exploration of the human form. Art is all about conversations across time, with each artist adding their voice to the mix.