Stadsgezicht 1890 - 1946

Cornelis Vreedenburgh made this drawing of a cityscape with pencil, and it's currently held at the Rijksmuseum. The first thing that strikes me is the delicacy of the marks. Vreedenburgh’s touch is so light, it’s almost as if the city is emerging from a fog. The graphite is layered in such a way that you can really feel the texture of the paper coming through. Look at the way he's built up the form of the buildings using these tiny, almost hesitant lines. The density of marks varies, creating a real sense of depth and atmosphere, some areas are more defined than others. The overall impression is one of transience, as if the city is there but also not quite there, like a memory. It reminds me a little of Piranesi’s etchings, where the city becomes this almost dreamlike space. It shows art as a process, where the image is never quite finished, but always in a state of becoming.