Zeilboot en een kerktoren 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh made this drawing of a sailboat and a church tower with ink on paper. The casual, almost scribbled lines have a funny kind of precision, don’t they? It’s like Vreedenburgh is thinking out loud on the page. Look at how the ink varies—sometimes thick, sometimes a hair’s breadth, the lines have an energy that’s almost fidgety. The texture of the paper peeks through the gaps, giving the drawing a real sense of lightness. The overall feeling you get is not of some grand statement, but of an open process, like the artist is sketching not to capture a perfect likeness, but to see what might happen. Reminds me a bit of some of Philip Guston’s looser drawings, where the subject is just a jumping-off point for mark-making and the pleasure of putting ink to paper. Ultimately, it's a reminder that art is often more about the questions we ask than the answers we find.