Voorgevel van een gebouw aan een straat 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh made this drawing of a building facade on a street with pencil on paper. The drawing has a sketchy, unfinished quality, like a fleeting impression captured on paper, as if Vreedenburgh was just walking around, enjoying the day. You can see the hand of the artist in the quick, decisive lines that define the architecture, and the heavier shadows. It feels spontaneous, like a jazz improvisation - trying to find the essence of a thing. I can imagine him, standing there, squinting at the light, trying to distill what he saw into a series of marks. You know, drawing like this reminds me of those early modernists like Cézanne, who were trying to break down the world into its basic forms. There’s a constant conversation going on between artists across time. One person has an idea, and then another picks it up and runs with it. It is a beautiful example of how a simple sketch can offer us a glimpse into an artist’s way of seeing and interpreting the world around them.