De kerk van Etten, bij Breda Possibly 1729

Editor: So, this is "De kerk van Etten, bij Breda," or "The Church of Etten, near Breda," dated possibly to 1729 by Cornelis Pronk. It’s a pen drawing on paper and part of the Rijksmuseum collection. I find it surprisingly...delicate. The lines are so light, it almost feels like a memory rather than a solid structure. What jumps out at you? Curator: You know, “delicate” is a perfect word. It captures that fleeting quality, as if Pronk sketched this on the fly. Look how he uses the negative space, the white of the paper itself, to define the church's form. It’s not just about what's drawn, but what's left un-drawn. Do you feel like that adds to the sketch's story? Editor: Absolutely! The sparseness makes you wonder about what’s *not* there, almost as if the building itself is fading away. It is incomplete and ruins are a very romantic theme to study, to think how important places come and go like us. Curator: Precisely! Pronk, you see, wasn't just documenting a building; he was capturing a moment in time, a feeling of place. Imagine standing there, pen in hand, trying to distill the essence of this church, to suggest not just its physicality, but also its history, its place in the landscape. It is idea generation itself and a romantic gesture. Editor: It’s amazing how much information and feeling can be conveyed with so little. Curator: I love that for you it represents what can be done with less. Now when you see these sketchbooks drawings, think of them as windows into the past. These were all initial moments that changed an artwork. Editor: I never thought about sketchbooks as initial moments of artworks and windows to see the past at once, I really like this analogy, thanks!