Paardenkoets en een straat met figuren c. 1908 - 1923

Ferdinand Oldewelt made this sketch of a horse-drawn carriage and figures on the street with pencil on paper. It's like a quick thought, a fleeting moment captured with just enough lines to suggest the scene. I love how the pencil marks are so present, almost like the drawing is still in the process of becoming. You can see the artist thinking, adjusting, and refining the shapes. Look at the wheels of the carriage, they are not perfect circles, but more like approximations, capturing the essence of a wheel in motion. And see the way he suggests the crowd in the background with just a few strokes – it is almost calligraphic. The sketchy lines create a sense of immediacy, like we're right there with the artist, witnessing the scene unfold before our eyes. It reminds me of drawings by Constantin Guys, who also captured the energy of urban life with a similar sense of spontaneity. In art, it’s often the unfinished quality, the sense of possibility, that makes it so compelling. It’s not about perfection, but about the feeling, the gesture, the act of seeing.