Aangemeerde boot aan een kade bij een brug 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh made this sketch of a boat docked on a quay by a bridge, using pencil. Look at the network of light, tentative lines, like a spider's web spun to capture a fleeting scene. You can almost feel the artist perched somewhere, rapidly translating the world before him onto the page. What was he thinking? What caught his eye about this boat, this bridge? Maybe it was the way the light played on the water, or the intricate architecture of the bridge supports. I love how the pencil marks are so raw, almost like a form of automatic writing. The light is thin, a wash. It reminds me how, as painters, we're all in this ongoing conversation, stealing and borrowing from each other across time. Each stroke, each decision, is a dialogue with the past, a reaching toward the future. It’s a gesture toward something just beyond our grasp.