Kerk bij een brug over een gracht 1890 - 1946

This pencil drawing of a church by a canal, its date unknown, was made by Cornelis Vreedenburgh on paper. The process seems so immediate, doesn’t it? I love seeing the artist's hand so clearly. You can almost feel the graphite moving across the page. Look at the way he uses hatching to create shadows, those quick, diagonal lines building up to suggest depth and form. There's a real sense of energy in the marks, a kind of searching for the right lines. It feels like Vreedenburgh is thinking through drawing, letting the image emerge through the act of making. See that dark cluster of lines on the right? Is it a boat, or just an abstract scribble? For me, this drawing is like a visual diary entry. It reminds me of Guston’s late drawings, that same directness, that feeling of the artist working through ideas in real time. Art isn't about answers, but about the questions we ask along the way.