Portret van een man met een baard 1890 - 1946

This drawing of a man with a beard, by Cornelis Vreedenburgh, is at the Rijksmuseum. I imagine Cornelis sitting with his sketchbook, rapidly trying to capture the essence of his sitter with a few deft marks. There’s something so intimate about drawings, like a direct connection to the artist’s hand. Look at the quick, scribbled lines that define the beard. You can almost feel the scratch of the pencil on the paper, see the artist’s breath held in concentration. Maybe he had a certain fondness for this man, or maybe he was just trying to capture a fleeting moment, a gesture, an expression. It makes me think about other artists who sketched portraits, like Van Gogh or Matisse. There's a shared language of line and form, each artist speaking in their own unique voice. This drawing is a reminder that art is an ongoing conversation, a dialogue between artists across time.