Gebouw met een toren aan een straat 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh made this pencil sketch, "Building with a Tower on a Street," on paper, and it’s more about feeling than seeing, right? The marks are tentative, searching. A dark smudge suggests an archway, and then the tower lifts off in soft increments. It’s not about capturing a likeness but finding a form. Look at the top of the tower, how the circular form dissolves in a haze of graphite, like a thought fading away. There’s a quiet intensity in the way Vreedenburgh coaxes the image into being, letting the medium lead the way. I'm reminded of Morandi, his still lifes built up from subtle tonal variations, a similar kind of understated poetry. Ultimately, it's the ambiguity of art that makes it so compelling, this sense of endless possibility.