Scheepswerf 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh’s etching depicts a ship under construction, a scene filled with layered cultural and historical resonance. The vessel, caught mid-construction, evokes not just shipbuilding but also the construction of human ambition, as seafaring represents humanity’s reach for the horizon. Consider the ship as a symbol, reappearing across epochs, from ancient Egyptian funerary boats meant to carry souls, to Viking longships as symbols of exploration and conquest. The vulnerability of the ship in dry dock, suspended in the air, invites comparison to ancient myths of floating, unanchored vessels, embodying humanity's vulnerability against the vastness of nature. The very act of building—of piecing together disparate parts into a functional whole—speaks to the human drive to master the material world. This echoes in the way the image engages with our memory, how we build and rebuild our own realities based on accumulated experiences. The image of the ship, thus, is not just a vessel but a potent carrier of cultural memory and historical ambition.