Aangemeerde zeilboot aan een kade 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh made this pencil drawing of a moored sailboat at a quay probably as a study for a larger painting. It's all about the lines, right? Look at how they build up to suggest form without ever quite resolving into clear shapes. The texture of the paper shows through, grounding the sketch in the real world. The pencil marks vary in pressure and direction, which gives the whole thing a lively, searching quality, like the artist is thinking through the image as they draw. See how the shading is just a scumble of pencil, especially in the circular form that you can make out towards the left? The shading has been applied with broad, loose strokes, which are less about creating a realistic depiction of light and shadow than about feeling out the form. It reminds me a bit of Picasso's early sketches—that same sense of capturing the essence of a scene with a few well-placed lines. Ultimately, it reminds you that art is as much about the process of seeing and thinking as it is about the final product.