Løse rids 1900 - 1905

Niels Larsen Stevns made this sketch with a pencil on paper. It looks like he’s workin’ out a motif – maybe it’s figures, maybe it’s landscape. It’s all these scribbly lines that suggest things without pinning them down. The beauty of a sketch like this is in the process, right? You can see the artist thinking, changing his mind, searching for the right form. I like the way the lines have different weights – some are dark and confident, others are light and tentative, like whispers. Take a look at the upper right, the way the strokes feather out, that part looks like an explosion or maybe a cluster of clouds. It's like he’s feeling his way through the subject. It reminds me of some of Philip Guston's late work – that same kind of searching line, where the image emerges from a tangle of marks. Both artists show us that art isn't about perfect representation, it's about the messy, beautiful process of trying to see.