Voordeur van een huis c. 1871 - 1878

This is Maria Vos' pencil drawing, "Front Door of a House," now held at the Rijksmuseum. The sketch presents us with a study in contrasts. The architectural solidity of the front door and facade is constructed with tentative lines. We see not just the door, but the very act of seeing—the artist's search for form. The lines are not definitive but exploratory, giving us a sense of dynamic movement. Vos uses the economy of line to challenge the fixity of representation. The sketch destabilizes the idea of a singular, stable image, suggesting instead a world of flux and possibility. The architectural elements, though present, are in dialogue with the surrounding negative space, questioning traditional notions of figure and ground. What is solid becomes porous, inviting us to contemplate the thresholds between perception and reality.