Huis te Regteren 1685 - 1735

Abraham Rademaker made this drawing of Huis te Regteren with pen in brown ink and brush in brown wash. The lines he drew were made with quill and ink, so you can see how the ink bleeds slightly into the paper, blurring some of the details. Rademaker uses brown wash to bring out the forms of the building, which gives the house depth. You can see how this technique would have been accessible to many at the time, as ink and paper were widely available. The labor here isn't in the intensive production of materials, but in the detailed rendering of the architecture. By choosing these materials, Rademaker democratizes the image, making it reproducible and available to a wider audience, which elevates the status of drawing as a medium. So, next time you look at a drawing, consider not just the image it portrays, but the materials and processes that brought it into being, challenging our notions of high art and craft.