Man en vrouw aan een gedekte tafel 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh made this drawing of a man and woman at a table, at some point in his career. It's like a quicksilver thought, barely there, lines feeling around in the empty space. I'm drawn to the tentative quality of the marks, the way the artist hasn't committed to any one form, but rather lets the lines suggest multiple possibilities. The whole thing feels like a search, a process of trying to capture something fleeting and ephemeral. The table setting is just a jumble of lines, yet somehow you know exactly what's there. There's a kind of intimacy in the way the artist has captured this everyday scene. It reminds me of some of Bonnard's interiors, where he uses loose, gestural marks to create a sense of atmosphere and feeling. Artmaking is always a conversation with the past, an ongoing dialogue between artists across time.