Hijskraan op een boot bij een kade 1890 - 1946

This drawing of a crane on a boat by Cornelis Vreedenburgh really shows the artist trying to capture something. It's all lines and angles. You can see Vreedenburgh searching for the right way to describe the scene, the weight and structure of the crane. Look how the marks are scrubbed and repeated. It's like he's thinking through the drawing. Does this line sit correctly on that line? How much pressure on the pencil? I like the raw, unfinished feel to it. It feels like he has captured the essence of the crane, its hulking presence, with a kind of joyful immediacy. It reminds me of the drawings of de Kooning, Giacometti, and Guston – those guys trying to get something down quickly, with a sense of urgency. It's like they are wrestling with the subject, trying to pin it down on the page before it escapes.