Kop van een man met een pijp 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh made this drawing of a man's head with a pipe in pencil, and it's all about mark-making as a kind of thinking. Look at how the pencil lines vary – some are dark and decisive, others are light and almost hesitant. You can see the artist working through the form, feeling it out. I love how the pipe is rendered, it’s kind of smudgy, and those dark shadowed areas around the eyes. It's like the artist is trying to capture not just the man's appearance, but also his mood, his inner state. That scribbled line that defines the top of the head seems to be a recurring motif, showing how ideas develop in the mind of the artist. There's a similar sense of intimacy in the sketches of someone like Van Gogh. It reminds us that art is not about perfect representation, but about exploration and discovery.