Kade van een gracht 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh made this graphite sketch of a canal side. It’s all done with layered marks, rubbed and built up, full of subtle shifts in tone. You can see the artist figuring it out, feeling around for the forms. He's using the side of the pencil to shade the horizontals, and building tone with hatching. Look at the vertical strokes next to the bollard – so expressive, like he’s improvising a little dance. I like to imagine Vreedenburgh outside, maybe the light was changing quickly. He had to make decisions fast, capturing the essence of the scene before it slipped away. There’s a kind of urgency in the marks. It reminds me of other plein air painters like Jongkind, who were also trying to nail down fleeting moments. Artists are always in conversation, aren't they? Each one builds on what came before, responding to the world in their own way. And in the end, it’s all about that physical connection – the hand, the eye, and the mark.