As a young woman, Hilma af Klint studied drawing and painting, eventually treating these mediums as spiritual channels. Working in isolation, she created strange abstractions inspired by the patterns and geometries of nature. But before reaching that point, she closely observed the natural world. During the spring and summer seasons of 1919 and 1920, af Klint sketched Sweden’s flora—sunflowers, lily of the valley, tree blossoms—and paired them with the abstract forms they represented for her. These forms, she noted, were “what stands behind the flowers.” The drawings are now on view for the first time, shedding light on af Klint’s thought process. —Elena Clavarino