Kop van een rokende man met een bril 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh made this pencil drawing of a smoking man wearing glasses at an unknown date. The drawing is on notebook paper and has the appearance of a quick sketch. I like to imagine the artist quickly capturing the likeness of his subject, whose features are summarized by just a few lines. There's something endearing about this character with a large nose and a cigarette hanging from his lips. I can almost smell the smoke! The artist outlines the shape of the head with a few confident strokes and then adds details like the glasses and hair. Vreedenburgh's approach reminds me of other artists interested in distilling the human form to its basic elements. Like them, Vreedenburgh demonstrates how much can be conveyed with so little. It's as if he's saying, "Here is a person, in their essence." These lines aren't just marks on paper, but a record of looking, thinking, and feeling.