Studie af en rygvendt mand siddende i en stol 1930 - 1936

Niels Larsen Stevns made this study of a man in a chair with pencil on paper. The tentative lines here, the way they search and double back, give the impression that Stevns is thinking through the subject. It's a kind of vulnerability you don't always see. The texture of the paper, visible through the light marks, adds to this feeling. Look at the way the lines defining the chair wobble, and how the marks trail off into nothingness. It’s almost as if the chair and the figure are dissolving back into the ether, or coming into being from it. The marks are not definitive, but rather suggestive, alluding to the form without fully committing to it. This quality reminds me of Giacometti's drawings. Both artists share a way of working where the act of seeing and representing becomes a meditation on the elusiveness of form itself. It’s a beautiful reminder that art isn't about capturing a fixed reality, but embracing the endless possibilities of interpretation.