Kop van een man met een hoed en sigaar 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh made these two studies of a man with a hat and cigar, and you can almost see him working, trying to find the perfect line, the perfect angle. I can imagine Vreedenburgh in his studio, squinting at his subject, charcoal in hand, moving back and forth, trying to capture the essence of this guy. Look at the lines – they're so tentative, so searching. The hat is just a few scribbles, but you get it, right? And the cigar, jutting out at a jaunty angle. It makes you wonder what they were talking about, what kind of stories this guy had to tell. It's like Vreedenburgh is saying, "Here's a guy, a moment, a feeling." And that's what painting is all about – capturing those fleeting moments and making them last forever. Thinking about this makes me want to grab my own charcoal and start scribbling, to join in the conversation that artists have been having for centuries.