Nicolaaskerk te Amsterdam 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh captured the Nicolaaskerk in Amsterdam with a flurry of pencil lines. I imagine him standing there, maybe a bit cold, quickly trying to catch the essence of the building. Look at the way he's sketched the domes, those repeated curves suggesting volume, but also a kind of shimmering light. You can almost feel the breeze moving around the architecture. It feels like the artist is trying to figure out the building in front of him. It's not about perfection; it’s about a search, a discovery, a kind of visual thinking, much like a painter trying to nail a difficult shape or color. I love how these rapid gestures communicate a sense of place, time, and the artist’s immediate experience. It reminds me of other artists who sketched en plein air, artists like, say, John Constable. There’s an ongoing conversation there across time. It all adds up, bit by bit.