Het Singel, gezien van het Koningsplein naar de Munttoren 1890 - 1946

Editor: This is Cornelis Vreedenburgh's pencil drawing, "Het Singel, gezien van het Koningsplein naar de Munttoren," likely created sometime between 1890 and 1946. It has a fleeting, almost impressionistic feel for a cityscape. What strikes you about this piece? Curator: The immediate impression is one of labor. The density of marks with a common graphite pencil emphasizes the physical act of creation, contrasting starkly with the architectural grandeur it depicts. Consider the social implications: Who had the time, the materials, and therefore, the *access* to depict this cityscape in this manner? Editor: That's interesting; I hadn’t thought of the sheer accessibility of artistic creation that we enjoy now. I suppose I just saw the technique as indicative of… style. Curator: But style isn't divorced from production, is it? Think of the paper itself – what kind is it? Its quality, its availability… these all dictate the end product. And why a drawing? Was painting cost-prohibitive? What social functions does this work serve, who might buy it, or see it, or consume the art itself? Editor: So you’re saying even a sketch is tied to these socioeconomic structures. If the paper was mass-produced or handmade, if Vreedenburgh sketched *en plein air* or from memory…it changes the context entirely. Curator: Precisely! It asks us to think of the artistic practice, of drawing itself, as work; about artistic production in this historical setting, in a specific city, available for consumption. Consider who would have seen, owned or been in the sphere of the artistic output of such drawing practices? Editor: That reframes how I see the whole piece. Thanks! I will never see drawing the same way now. Curator: Good, so perhaps look beyond the surface. Now we both might think of materiality not as an artistic end in itself, but about what it makes possible!