Landskab ved Ferring, fyrtårnet tændt 1929

Niels Bjerre made this landscape of Ferring with a pencil in 1929. It’s a study, or maybe a memory, the kind of drawing an artist might make as a starting point for a painting. The surface is covered with tiny marks, a web of hatched lines that model the forms of the landscape; fields, dunes, and buildings. Look closely, and you can see the pressure of the pencil changing, becoming darker and more intense to define the shadows and textures of the scene. The material is humble, but there’s real skill in the way Bjerre coaxes so much information from the graphite. There's a strong sense of place. I love the way the whole composition is built up from simple marks. You see this kind of approach in the drawings of Van Gogh. But where Van Gogh is agitated and energetic, Bjerre is calm, contained. Like Agnes Martin he seems to find a kind of freedom through restraint.