Rijtjeshuizen in een straat

Willem Koekkoek made this drawing of terraced houses with pen and brown ink on paper in the 19th century. The artist's hand is clearly visible in this drawing. The linear quality of the ink, rapidly applied, gives a sense of the urban environment being built at pace. The thinness of the lines betrays the speed of the process, with Koekkoek seemingly capturing a fleeting moment of urban development. There is a raw simplicity in the drawing. The architecture represented here reflects a moment in the social history of urbanisation. Consider the houses themselves, and the labor involved in their construction. The drawing reminds us of how much work it takes to build a city, and how many hands and bodies contribute to create our urban environments. By considering these aspects, we move beyond simply appreciating the drawing for its aesthetic qualities, and towards understanding the social and economic forces at play in the artwork.