Gezicht op Den Haag met de Grote of St. Jacobskerk 1645 - 1646

Pieter Moninckx made this drawing of The Hague with the Grote or St. Jacobskerk, likely in the mid-17th century, using graphite or lead on paper. Here, the artist has focused on the city's silhouette, with trees in the foreground. The marks are tentative, and the scene feels as though captured in transit. The method is simple and portable, a prepared surface of paper, and a handheld implement. This yields a drawing that privileges immediacy and accuracy, in contrast to the labor-intensive work that went into creating the church in the distance. Consider, too, the labor of paper-making, which by this time was beginning to be mechanized, but still retained a strong basis in handcraft. The combination of the industrial, agricultural, and urban is all captured here, and the artist is our guide through this early modern landscape. Drawings like this are so often dismissed as preliminary or preparatory, but in fact they bring us close to the lived experience of their makers.