Christus og Nikodemus 1909

Poul S. Christiansen made this drawing of Christ and Nicodemus with graphite on paper. It's all about the touch of that pencil, isn't it? The way it skitters and scratches across the surface. You can almost feel Christiansen thinking aloud, the medium really lends itself to the artist’s searching and refining as he goes. Look at the faces, how the lines cluster to create shadows and depth, especially around the eyes. It's as if he's trying to capture not just what they look like, but what they're feeling, what they're thinking. It reminds me of some of those early modernist sketches where form is just starting to emerge. And that halo around Christ, so lightly sketched, it's barely there, but it says everything. Christiansen reminds me a little of someone like Ernst Barlach, in the way he combines the spiritual and the earthy. Art's just a conversation, right? We are constantly riffing on each other.