Grazend dier 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh made this drawing of a grazing animal with pencil on paper. There’s a kind of honesty to a sketch. It’s a record of a moment, a thought caught in the act of becoming. I love the vulnerability of pencil; the way it can capture a line so delicately that it barely exists, but still manages to suggest a whole world. Look at the way Vreedenburgh has described the animal’s form with just a few lines. It’s there, but it’s also disappearing. That little patch of tone under the main figure is interesting, like a shadow or a stain on the page. It's like the artist wasn't trying to create a perfect image, but simply recording what he saw, and allowing the process to be visible. Vreedenburgh reminds me of Paula Modersohn-Becker, who also worked with such an economy of means, finding beauty in the everyday and the unfinished. For me, this is a lesson in seeing, and a reminder that sometimes the simplest gestures can be the most powerful.