Udkast til "Kristus og de ti spedalske" 1937 - 1938

This is a pencil sketch by Niels Larsen Stevns, “Draft for Christ and the Ten Lepers.” The page is filled with tentative lines, a whirlwind of graphite searching for form. You can almost feel Stevns' hand moving across the page, trying to capture the essence of this biblical scene. I imagine him wrestling with the composition, the placement of figures, the emotional weight of the encounter. Are those arches above? Are they figures below? It's like watching a thought take shape, a story emerging from the chaos of lines. Look at the energy in those marks! There’s a real urgency, a need to get something down quickly before it vanishes. And that’s what drawing is, right? A way of thinking, feeling, seeing. Stevns is in conversation with his own ideas and with all the artists who have tackled this subject before him. He is finding his own way to express it. It’s a beautiful thing, this messy, imperfect, and deeply human act of creation.