Paard 1890 - 1946

This is Cornelis Vreedenburgh’s “Paard”, made with pencil on paper. Look how the horse appears on the page – not a grand portrait but a collection of marks, like a thought caught mid-flight. It's like Vreedenburgh is thinking through the horse, rather than just depicting it. The surface is alive with these short, dark strokes. They build up to suggest form, shadow, the weight of the animal. Nothing is overworked; it's all immediate and direct. See how the lines around the mane are almost scribbled? It’s this kind of shorthand that gives the work its energy. Vreedenburgh reminds me a bit of Daumier, who also had a knack for capturing the essence of his subjects with just a few lines. Both artists see drawing as a way to grasp at the real, knowing it’s always just beyond our reach. The horse is there, but it is more about the process of trying to capture it.