Landschap in een kader 1890 - 1946

Curator: Here we have Cornelis Vreedenburgh’s “Landschap in een kader,” dating from around 1890 to 1946. It's a mixed-media drawing on paper, combining ink and pencil. It’s currently held here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Wow, this is… intense, in a chaotic sort of way. It’s like looking into someone’s overstimulated mind. So much is happening! Geometric forms fighting for attention amongst all that frenetic scribbling. Is it a landscape, or a series of frantic notations about one? Curator: That sense of frantic notation is perceptive. Vreedenburgh was known for his cityscapes, and the geometric form at the bottom is most probably some map-form cityscape— but this is more like an artist’s journal, mapping out impressions more than architectural accuracy. Look closely, you can see words amongst the drawings, which further emphasizes its role as a personal record. Editor: Right, it's a raw outpouring, not a polished statement. "Monte Carlo," "Hotel Anglais"...like postcards scribbled on a caffeine binge! There's something vulnerable about it. Makes you wonder what kind of journey—internal or external—he was on. Curator: Absolutely. The sketch possesses qualities tied into modernity and the experience of tourism, reflecting a culture increasingly mobile. Hotels, cities—keynotes of turn-of-the-century bourgeois leisure and capital accumulation. And the use of a portable format reinforces this context. Editor: So it becomes this fascinating document of the flaneur, constantly bombarded and noting those things? Maybe it's less about accurately depicting the landscape and more about recording the act of experiencing it. The speed, the fleeting impressions, the sheer volume. He captured that energy beautifully, though the final piece is unnerving! Curator: I agree, this offers us a potent glimpse of what lay behind finished landscapes of the period, unveiling something of a rapid industrial-age awareness in formation. Editor: And perhaps why finished works had such controlled, romantic appeal. This work definitely holds an intense honesty to a fleeting moment! Thanks for opening my eyes.