Zeilboten 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh drew these sailboats with graphite on paper, giving us a peek into his process. It’s like catching him in the act of thinking, not just about boats, but about how to see them, how to capture them. The graphite is so immediate, so direct. You can almost hear the scratch of the pencil across the paper. Look closely at the mast of the boat on the left. There's a kind of beautiful hesitancy there, a searching for the right line. It’s not about perfection, it's about the gesture, the feel of the thing. The shading is kind of smudgy and uneven. It feels honest. It makes me think of Guston’s late drawings, where the clunky, awkward marks become something so tender and true. Vreedenburgh isn't trying to impress us with skill, but is sharing a moment of observation, a fleeting impression, which is what art can be.