Løse figurskitser 1864 - 1941

Niels Larsen Stevns made this drawing, Løse figurskitser, with pencil on paper. It's not dated, so we don't know exactly when it was made, but you get the sense it was a quick sketch, a study, a practice. I love sketches, you can really see the process. There's something so delicate about the way he's layered these figures. The soft greys, the paper showing through, it feels like he's trying to capture a feeling rather than a likeness. It's not so much about who these people are, but more about the act of seeing them, the way they occupy space. Notice the fellow at the bottom left, he's leaning on what appears to be a cart, but it's so lightly rendered, it's almost like he's leaning on air. That's the beauty of a sketch, it's not trying to be perfect, it's just trying to capture a moment, a feeling, an idea. Think of someone like Manet, another artist fascinated with the fleeting nature of modern life. It makes you wonder what Stevns would have made of these sketches if he'd developed them further. But then, maybe their magic lies in their incompleteness.