Gezicht op Crèvecoeur, 1672 1900 - 1903

This view of Crèvecoeur was made in 1672 by the frères Moreau, though who they were is anyone's guess! It’s all delicate greys, like a memory fading at the edges. You can tell it’s a work on paper; the line is almost tentative, feeling its way across the surface. The buildings on the left are just suggestions, like ghostly apparitions against the sky. And then there’s the bridge, or a bit of land, on the right, rendered with more confidence, a dark anchor in all that airy lightness. Look at the way they’ve used the smudging of the pencil to create atmosphere, a haze that softens the edges and makes the whole scene feel dreamlike. It reminds me a little of Turner’s watercolors – that same interest in light and atmosphere, that same willingness to let the subject dissolve into abstraction. But there’s also something distinctly Dutch about it, a quiet, unassuming quality that draws you in, inviting you to linger and look closer.