Portræt af maleren Sigurd Swane 1907

Harald Giersing made this tender portrait of the painter Sigurd Swane in Paris using graphite on paper. Look at the gently curving lines, how they manage to evoke a whole person with so few marks! It’s so simple, but so effective. I bet Giersing was really looking, trying to see past the surface to capture something essential about his fellow artist. The sensitivity of the drawing makes me feel like I'm peering into a quiet, intimate moment between the two painters. The closed eyes, the slight smile – Swane seems lost in thought, maybe even dreaming, don’t you think? There's a beautiful economy to the drawing. Think about how each line had to count, how Giersing made every mark with intention. It reminds us that painting and drawing are a constant conversation between artists, a shared language developed over time. It suggests how uncertainty and intuition come together when creating. What do you feel when you look at it?