Exterieur van het koor van een kerk 1849 - 1895

This is Willem Koekkoek's pencil drawing, "Exterior of the Choir of a Church," housed here at the Rijksmuseum. It presents a network of finely sketched lines that capture the architectural structure and essence of the church. The artist uses a minimalist approach to define form and space. Notice how the bare use of line and shape strips down the church's exterior to its basic geometric elements. The composition balances a sense of depth and flatness, inviting you to consider how Koekkoek manipulates perspective to render a recognizable, tangible structure, while simultaneously highlighting the two-dimensionality of the paper. The sketch invites us to contemplate the architectural form as a structure of representation, questioning how lines on paper translate into spatial understanding and cultural recognition. The incompleteness of the sketch becomes a space for active interpretation.