Zeegezicht 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh made this pencil sketch titled "Zeegezicht," which translates to "Seascape," sometime between 1900 and 1946. What I notice first are the layered strokes creating depth and texture. Look at how Vreedenburgh used the pencil to suggest light reflecting on water. I can almost feel the breeze and smell the salt air. I imagine him standing at the shore, squinting into the distance. His hand moves swiftly, trying to capture the essence of the scene before the light changes. There's something so immediate and intimate about a sketch, isn’t there? It’s like a whisper, a fleeting thought made visible. It connects him to other landscape artists such as Johan Barthold Jongkind and Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch who explored similar themes. In the end, art is about conversation, not just with oneself, but across time. It is this shared language of mark-making that ties us together.