Eksteriør og detalje fra S. Bernadino, Verona 1896

Curator: Here we have Niels Larsen Stevns' 1896 cityscape, titled "Eksteriør og detalje fra S. Bernadino, Verona", housed here at the SMK. It's a coloured pencil drawing. Editor: My first impression is a sense of fragility, a quiet stillness captured with incredibly delicate lines. There’s almost a melancholic tone in its sparseness. Curator: It is just a preliminary sketch, but that initial reaction to sparseness and quiet is really key to Stevns' method. Notice the paper, it looks like simple sketchpad paper and, judging by its size, it was likely composed onsite, not within the sanitised walls of a studio. He uses very economical lines to create buildings that nonetheless clearly evoke a place and atmosphere. Editor: Indeed, the structural integrity of the lines outlines basic forms in the facade: a portal, a window, the suggestion of the roofline. These architectural features become symbolic through repetition; each careful line defines a boundary and implies mass. And it would be easy to interpret the colour here – given the location - as symbolic too, with reference to the frescoes for which Northern Italy is known. Curator: Right, he would likely have been using readily available materials. This highlights how sketching for Stevns was part of the process of learning a new environment through labour: he sees the church not as a symbolic construction in and of itself, but as a social process, as part of a wider construction network of trade, and people. Editor: Yet, the absence of human presence emphasizes the monumental quality of the building. In its quiet stillness, one can trace the interplay of line and form as defining features. It offers more of an idea of his sensory reaction. Curator: Perhaps. Still, the marks of the quick study on a budget show his priorities; the material conditions reflect and shape his gaze. And therefore, I’d like to resist that idea, the focus for me is Stevns and the external elements that have made him become the artist he is. Editor: Fascinating how this sketch invites us to consider how both objective reality and subjective emotion shape our experience of place. Curator: Exactly! This look into Stevns' method in seeing the art object itself opens up fresh new appreciation.