Auto 1890 - 1946

This sketch of a car was made by Cornelis Vreedenburgh, we don't know exactly when, using graphite on paper. The thing I always find so intriguing in sketches like this is how the artist has had to feel their way around the subject to arrive at the final image. You can see that layering up of marks in the blocky form of the car body. He's really leant on the graphite stick here, with some hatching to suggest shadow and volume, but elsewhere the lines are very faint. It’s there in the wheels too, where the spokes have been rapidly scribbled in. There’s a real sense of energy, but also precision. The texture of the paper seems smooth, but with a slight tooth that grabs the graphite, giving a nice contrast between dark and light. Vreedenburgh was known for his landscapes. I wonder if, for him, this car represents something of modern life encroaching on the landscape, or perhaps he was simply interested in the formal challenge of rendering a machine. Either way, it's a glimpse into the artist's thought process, a moment of observation captured in a few deft strokes. It puts me in mind of some of the car drawings of Claes Oldenburg. Art is often about a kind of back and forth, and the conversation continues.