Straat in Brugge Possibly 1906

Here is a street in Bruges, sketched in pencil by Martinus van Regteren Altena. Imagine him there on the street, squinting in the sun, trying to capture the light hitting those rooftops. Look how he renders the cobblestones with such tiny, frenetic strokes. You can almost hear the clip-clop of horses’ hooves and the echo of footsteps. I bet he was cold! Pencil on paper is so immediate, so intimate. I know that feeling of wanting to record a place, to fix it in time. Those lines are alive, vibrating with a nervous energy! I can almost feel Altena’s hand moving across the page, a flurry of marks building up into this quiet, contemplative scene. And that lone figure walking down the street? It’s like he’s inviting us to step right into the drawing and join him. It’s all connected, you know? We’re all just trying to make sense of the world, one mark at a time.