Windmolen 1789 - 1859

Pieter de Goeje rendered this drawing of a windmill with pen and brush in grey ink. The stark tonality and directness of line speak to the functional role of windmills in the Netherlands, structures for grinding grain and reclaiming land from the sea. The artist’s choice of materials, humble as they are, directs our attention to the windmill itself, a machine built of wood and canvas, engineered to harness the wind’s energy. The windmill’s silhouette against the sky conveys its immediate presence in the landscape, and its connection to labor and the production of essential goods. De Goeje used the most economic means available to convey the beauty of a working structure, elevating it to a subject worthy of artistic attention. We can appreciate how such drawings collapse any assumed hierarchy between art and the everyday.