Gezicht in profiel naar links 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh made this quick sketch of a face in profile, looking left, with what looks like pencil on paper. It has a rawness that I really love, like you're catching an idea as it emerges. The line is so spare, just enough to suggest a nose, lips, and chin, and other marks on the page that might be other failed ideas, or places where the pencil was tested. There’s a sensitivity to the pressure of the line, how it varies from thick to thin, dark to light. The area around the mouth is so evocative - a scribble of marks to describe the curve of the lips and the shadow underneath. It reminds me a little of Matisse’s line drawings, that same effortless quality. You get the sense that Vreedenburgh was less concerned with the accuracy of the portrait and more concerned with the act of drawing, of seeing. For me, art is always this conversation, a back and forth between intention and accident, control and letting go.