Landschap met bomen en struiken 1890 - 1946

This drawing of a landscape with trees and bushes, by Cornelis Vreedenburgh, is all about the hand moving across paper and leaving its trace. I imagine him outside with his sketchbook, trying to capture the essence of the trees with quick strokes of graphite. I wonder, was he trying to record a specific place, or was he more interested in the act of drawing itself? You can almost feel the artist's breath, his pauses and hesitations. I can imagine him squinting to see the dark spots and light spots in the trees, and I can almost feel the sun in my face while looking at it. The trees themselves seem to grow out of a dark, concentrated mass, becoming lighter and more airy as they rise. The clouds are just suggested with a few lines. It is as though Vreedenburgh is inviting us to complete the picture ourselves. Like the work of other landscape painters, Vreedenburgh is not just showing us a place, but a way of seeing.