Paard 1890 - 1946

This is Cornelis Vreedenburgh's "Paard" at the Rijksmuseum, a sketch rendered with ink on paper. The composition strikes you with its stark simplicity—a solitary horse, seemingly suspended in the vast emptiness of the page. Vreedenburgh's choice of line is particularly telling here. With a minimal set of strokes, he captures the essence of the animal, reducing it to its most fundamental form. This sparseness invites us to consider the semiotic function of the horse itself; its meaning is not inherent but constructed by the artist and interpreted by us. The materiality of the ink against the paper adds another layer. The texture of the paper and the varying pressure of the artist's hand bring a tactile dimension to the otherwise two-dimensional plane. Vreedenburgh's sketch invites us to explore the interplay between representation and abstraction. What does it mean to capture the essence of a horse with such minimal means? It challenges our perception and the very nature of representation.