Plantestudie 1906 - 1910

Niels Larsen Stevns created this plant study with pencil and watercolor, capturing a potted plant's essence. The plant emerges as a symbol of growth and the cyclical nature of life. Think of the ancient Egyptians, who revered plants like the papyrus, seeing them as symbols of regeneration and immortality. This echoes in Stevns's choice of subject; the plant, contained yet thriving, becomes a meditation on life's resilience. Consider the 'horror vacui' or 'fear of empty space', a motif that propelled artists to fill every inch of their canvases with patterns and figures. Here, the plant study is placed within the confines of the sketchbook page, contrasting the organic and untamed with the structured. This contrast embodies the tension between nature's boundless energy and humanity's attempts to understand and contain it. The plant is not just an object of study, but a mirror reflecting our complex relationship with the natural world.