Notities 1890 - 1946

Editor: Right, so here we have Cornelis Vreedenburgh's "Notities," made sometime between 1890 and 1946. It's a mixed media drawing using ink and pencil on paper, currently held at the Rijksmuseum. Looking at it, it feels…almost like a private document. It's just a page filled with scribbles and notes, not really meant for display. How do you interpret this work? Curator: Ah, yes, “Notities.” I love that title, it embraces its raw intimacy, doesn't it? It's like stumbling upon an artist's inner thoughts, their shopping lists juxtaposed with bursts of creative inspiration. Vreedenburgh hands us his beautiful chaos. Look at the varied penmanship. It ranges from the meticulous listing of addresses – *“Mecklenburg 27, Bremen”* – to the cursive swirls and spontaneous ideas trailing downwards, so immediate as if jotted down in a streetcar on a bumpy road. It suggests an artist constantly observing, constantly capturing fragments of the world, ideas, maybe snippets of conversation, am I right? Editor: Definitely! I noticed the London-based “Sketcher’s Note Book” stamp; It adds another layer, implying maybe it was bought whilst travelling, it shows the influences from afar. Curator: Precisely! It is his brain spilled right there for us to study and almost...experience. Imagine if that shopping list inspired some master work, don't you just crave that delicious story behind this image now? Editor: It does make you wonder about all those scribbled out words. What secrets do they hold, haha! Curator: And doesn't that entice the most marvelous story of all, my dear, that *we* create with each new moment staring into the artist's past. Editor: That’s a lovely perspective. It transforms what I saw as just simple notes into a prompt for my imagination!