Werktuig om een sluis te bedienen 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh made this drawing of a tool to operate a lock. It’s just pencil on paper, but it's how he's used the pencil that sings to me. There's a real sense of searching here. The lines feel tentative, like the artist is figuring out the structure of the tool as he goes. It's like he’s thinking through drawing, letting the graphite lead the way. See how some lines are darker, more certain, while others are faint and almost disappear into the page? That’s the beautiful push and pull of observation, and a mind at work. The crisscrossing lines create this kind of shimmering effect, suggesting movement and the potential energy of the lock mechanism. It reminds me of Piranesi's architectural etchings, or even some of the early futurist drawings, where the line becomes a way of capturing not just the object, but the very idea of motion and change. It’s a sketch, but it's also a little poem about how things work.