Gezicht op een dorp 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh made this sketch of a village with graphite on paper. I can feel the give of the paper, and see the way the artist built up tone and texture through layering. It’s like the drawing itself is an act of feeling his way through the landscape. I imagine Vreedenburgh standing there, squinting perhaps, trying to capture the essence of the place, not every little detail, but a feeling. There’s a real push-pull of dark and light, especially in the trees, creating a sense of depth and atmosphere. He has used a darker hatching to create a heavy mass on the left, but keeps the steeple light with sparse use of graphite. This drawing is part of a larger conversation about how we see and represent the world around us, what we leave out and what we emphasize. All artists build on what others have done, it’s an act of call and response across time. Artists embrace uncertainty because the magic happens in that space of in-between.