Staande figuur op een straat voor een huis 1890 - 1946

Curator: Oh, my, isn't that wonderfully understated? Just a glimpse of a moment. Editor: Indeed. We’re looking at “Standing Figure on a Street in Front of a House,” a drawing done in ink and pencil on paper, made sometime between 1890 and 1946 by Cornelis Vreedenburgh. Curator: It’s less about what's precisely *there*, wouldn’t you agree, and more about what’s *suggested*? The feeling of a place. Sort of raw, yet inviting too. Makes me wonder where he was standing, what caught his eye...maybe he was just doodling? Editor: The composition directs our attention through layered perspective; note the initial sketch-like structure with details overlaid as the artist defines volume and space through a strategic economy of line. It’s clear Vreedenburgh sought to understand the bare architectural structures and organization. Curator: Structures are important, I agree, but his focus must have been elsewhere! Did he want to record a detail about the urban building, or did he rather let us dive with him in the smells and lights of an average urban moment? What was so memorable, the figure or its setting? It could also be the first take of a larger painting, don't you think? Editor: Certainly. We could consider the semiotics involved in his reduction to lines to understand that he probably saw only the essential character of that person standing still in the perspective, rather than an actual portrait. The hand-drawn, quick type sketches add depth. The house façade on the middle ground has very little in terms of architectural adornments and still exudes the air of a livable setting thanks to the lines... Curator: Precisely! Those chicken scratches! It lets the magic in. The incompleteness is precisely its strength. If it were too perfect, it wouldn't be nearly so haunting and interesting. A complete picture is always dead, isn't it? Editor: Ha! Maybe! Curator: I shall come back to it in some time. Editor: And I will examine all the structures, negative space, and graphic elements. Thank you!