Blomsterstudier 1937 - 1938

Niels Larsen Stevns drew these lilies with what looks like a graphite stick in a sketchbook. It's cool to see the bare bones of a drawing, isn't it? It’s like catching a glimpse of the artist's thought process. You can almost feel the rhythm of Stevns' hand as he maps out the composition. The lines are confident but not overly precious. The texture of the paper shows through, adding a kind of vulnerability to the piece. The flowers are so delicately rendered with wiry strokes, so sparse in their presence, that they feel both there and not there, existing in a space between observation and imagination. This reminds me a little of some of Matisse’s drawings, the way he could capture the essence of a form with just a few, well-placed lines. It’s all about finding the right balance between what to include and what to leave out.