Twee trekpaarden 1890 - 1946

Curator: Looking at "Twee trekpaarden," or "Two Draft Horses," a pencil drawing by Cornelis Vreedenburgh, likely created sometime between 1890 and 1946, here at the Rijksmuseum. What strikes you first? Editor: The sketch is quite gestural. Raw, even. The hurried application of pencil strokes and the emphasis on capturing the essence of form over photographic precision. Curator: Exactly. Draft horses, historically beasts of burden, here rendered with quick strokes suggesting movement and powerful build. It captures the essence of their working existence. In much of Western iconography, horses symbolize nobility, vigor, but this work speaks more to their role in agriculture. Editor: The use of line is interesting. It isn't descriptive in a traditional sense, but conveys weight and musculature with economy. And the cropping - it cuts off portions of the horses, making them monumental and implying they extend beyond our view, imbuing them with significance. Curator: Consider how, even unfinished, the overlapping of the horses and the use of chiaroscuro give them depth, connecting them to traditions of realistic representation—a type of realism where emotional and symbolic meaning matter more than objective accuracy. The implied weight is a visual metaphor, I believe, for a working-class ethic: burden, but also dignity. Editor: It’s compelling to observe Vreedenburgh stripping away extraneous detail, focusing instead on the barest formal elements to reveal something truthful about labor and the natural world. A deconstruction that lays bare an unsentimental observation. Curator: It seems to bypass idealism entirely. The rough sketch quality almost conveys their weariness, don’t you think? It resists romanticism, nodding instead towards a stark reality of reliance and co-dependence. Editor: The deliberate simplicity allows us to observe the elemental structures; a foundation for our own layered interpretations. Its pared-down essence becomes surprisingly resonant. Curator: An eloquent portrayal with a mere pencil. Editor: Succinctly put.