Windmolen 1890 - 1946

Curator: There's a dreamlike quality to Cornelis Vreedenburgh's pencil drawing, simply titled *Windmolen,* housed here at the Rijksmuseum and created sometime between 1890 and 1946. Editor: It does feel more like a fleeting thought than a fully realized image. There’s something haunting about its incompleteness, a sense of potential energy never quite unleashed. Curator: Absolutely. Note the almost skeletal form of the windmill itself, rendered with such sparse lines. The sketches above suggest a kind of palimpsest of thoughts, perhaps other landscapes or studies layered in the artist’s mind. Editor: What strikes me is how Vreedenburgh chose the windmill, already a symbol laden with national identity, yet drains it of all grandiosity. It becomes a fragile, almost vulnerable structure against the vast nothingness of the paper. This resonates deeply with the early 20th-century’s re-evaluation of nationalistic symbols in art. Curator: Exactly. Windmills, especially in Dutch art, often signify prosperity and industry, but here, it seems more introspective. Perhaps Vreedenburgh uses this familiar image to subtly reflect on a changing societal landscape and our relationship with the past. The rapid technological growth during that period began to impact these rural elements that once defined the culture. Editor: There’s also something about the deliberate simplicity, this almost naive rendering. The symbolic value of windmills, particularly their role in Dutch national identity, was under socio-political pressures from industrial modernity at this time. By drawing like this, perhaps he reflects both nostalgia and a knowing farewell. Curator: A poignant observation. The starkness could certainly suggest a farewell, rather than a celebration. He's playing with cultural memory. Editor: It reminds us that even the most recognizable symbols are constantly being redefined, negotiated, and, yes, sometimes mourned. Curator: A reminder that a seemingly simple sketch can hold complex dialogues about our evolving relationship with both nature and history.