Studier af ørn 1864 - 1941

This is one page from a sketchbook of eagle studies, made by Niels Larsen Stevns, maybe around the turn of the last century. You can see it’s all about process, this quiet, tentative searching with the pencil. The paper has aged to a warm tan, which gives a kind of intimacy to the drawings. They're just these faint, delicate lines, almost like whispers on the page. The top eagle is especially interesting, because the way the lines are drawn, it could be an eagle or it could be a draped figure. I love that kind of ambiguity, where the drawing isn't quite sure what it is, and embraces this uncertainty. It’s so simple, but it contains a world of possibilities. This reminds me a bit of Odilon Redon’s charcoal drawings, which have the same kind of dreamy, ethereal quality. But here, Stevns is observing nature, trying to capture something essential about the eagle's form and spirit. It makes you think about how art is always a conversation, building on what came before while also forging its own path.