Udkast til "Kristus velsigner de små børn" 1937 - 1938

This little sketch, Udkast til "Kristus velsigner de små børn", was made by Niels Larsen Stevns. It's difficult to see exactly what is going on! I see charcoal lines, faint, like ghostly figures emerging from the page. I can imagine Niels Larsen Stevns in his studio, trying to get some ideas down on paper, experimenting. Maybe he was thinking about the old masters, about light and shadow. Perhaps he was also thinking about how to make something new, something that would speak to people. It's just a sketch, but it feels like a beginning. I see a whole world of possibilities in those faint lines, and I’m reminded that all paintings, even the great ones, start with a single mark, with someone trying to figure something out. It reminds us that artists are in an ongoing conversation across time, inspiring one another’s creativity.