Huizen aan een waterkant 1890 - 1946

This drawing of houses on a waterfront, now at the Rijksmuseum, was made by Cornelis Vreedenburgh with graphite on paper. You can almost feel the scratch of the pencil moving back and forth across the page, building up the forms of the houses and the foliage. I wonder if Vreedenburgh was trying to capture a fleeting moment, a particular quality of light, or just the feeling of being there. It reminds me of when I'm trying to get something down quickly, before it disappears. Look at how he suggests the reflections in the water with just a few deft strokes. There's a real economy of means here, a sense of knowing exactly what to leave out as well as what to include. This piece is a reminder that painting and drawing, even in their simplest forms, are about so much more than just representation. They’re about feeling, about being present, and about trying to capture something essential about the world around us. Artists like Vreedenburgh keep the conversation going across time.