Plattegrond van een huis 1890 - 1946

Here is a floor plan of a house by Cornelis Vreedenburgh. It’s rendered in pencil or charcoal on paper. Just imagining Vreedenburgh holding this pad, sketching this idea of home... what was he thinking about? I wonder, was it for himself, or someone else? There’s a confidence to the marks, but also a looseness, like he’s thinking aloud. The upper sketch is looser, more suggestive, while the one below is densely worked, full of detail. I can feel the artist working through ideas, correcting, adjusting. The texture of the paper must have been good, just enough resistance. See how the smudging of the pencil creates depth, adding shadow and volume. I feel like I’m standing in the space he’s imagining, walking through rooms that don’t yet exist. Painters are always riffing off each other, building on what came before. I can see echoes of Cubism in the way Vreedenburgh breaks down space. He is trying to understand how we occupy space, how a home can be both functional and emotional. That's what's so great about painting, it invites us into that space of possibility and continuous exchange.