Uitzicht op zee vanaf het dek van een schip c. 1936

Cornelis Vreedenburgh made this view of the sea from a ship's deck with pencil on paper. It's all about the immediacy of seeing, a kind of quicksilver response to being out on the water. The marks are so delicate, almost like he’s just barely touching the page. It feels like the visual equivalent of jotting down a melody as it comes to you. Look at the way the lines of the rigging slice through the sky, they’re not quite straight, they waver. They give it this feeling of being on a moving vessel. This sketch reminds me of the work of Giorgio Morandi, another artist who found endless inspiration in simple, everyday scenes. Like Morandi's bottles, Vreedenburgh's seascape invites us to slow down and really look, to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. Ultimately, this drawing celebrates the beauty of impermanence.