Vignet 1878 - 1940

Elias Voet Jr. made this beautiful little vignette, it's an architectural sketch, and it looks like it's probably made with ink on paper. I’m so drawn to the negative space in this piece. The little structure floats in the whiteness, like a thought, or a memory. The linework is careful, deliberate, precise, like the work of an architect perhaps but there is something strange about the way it seems to hover. The contrast between the solid black lines and the open space around it gives it a real presence, almost like a tiny stage set. It reminds me a bit of Piranesi’s etchings, or maybe some of the weirder architectural drawings by Hilma af Klint: those artists were equally interested in the possibility of the world. I'm left wondering about Voet's inspirations, and where his works fit into the history of architectural drawing. It's an invitation to keep looking, keep thinking, and keep exploring.