Kerk aan een weg 1890 - 1946

This pencil drawing of a church, made by Cornelis Vreedenburgh, has this tentative, searching quality that I just love. You can see the artist feeling their way across the page, figuring out the shapes and forms as they go. I imagine Vreedenburgh standing on the side of the road, squinting at the church, quickly trying to capture what’s in front of him, but also not wanting to get bogged down in the details. He's blocking in the main areas and suggesting the textures of the stonework, making it seem like a church, but also a kind of abstract, geometric form. It reminds me of some of the quick sketches that artists like Guston or de Kooning would make. What's great is how Vreedenburgh isn't trying to give us the whole picture. It’s like he’s saying, “Here’s a church, but it’s also just a bunch of lines and shapes on a page”. That ambiguity is what makes art so interesting. It’s not just about what you see, but about how you see it and how it makes you feel.