Dorpsgezicht te Kortenhoef 1732

Abraham de Haen the second rendered this scene of Kortenhoef in pen and brush, using ink and gray wash. It’s a quick, deft sketch, giving us the essence of the place with great economy. What’s interesting is to think about the labor involved. On the one hand, we see the results of construction: the church tower, the tidy houses, and especially the drawbridge, which appears to be made primarily of timber. Someone had to fell those trees, square the lumber, and assemble it all. And of course, the artist himself invested a certain amount of time and skill to make this pleasing image. In a way, the drawing flattens all of this activity, whether agricultural, industrial, or artistic, into a single plane of representation. The drawing makes all of this labor and making legible, inviting us to think more deeply about the relationship between hand work and place.