Dordrecht – 07-12-17

By Corne_Akkers

(0)

0 1258

£1,300

Status

In Stock

Condition

Unframed

Description

Hidden Gem

A couple of weeks back I was visiting the Jongkind exhibition at the Dordrechts Museum at Dordrecht, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. Naturally I took the opportunity to make a detour across the city being a hidden gem in its own right. In fact it is quite pittoresque and has lots of old buildings, canals and odd second hand stores to enjoy. Once it was the capital of Holland but it has since lost much of its former glory. The second hand stores are exemplary for a poorer side. However they are cozier than shopping streets packed with the usual franchises such as in The Hague and Amsterdam.

Great Horizontals and Verticals

Two decades ago I visited the place for the last time and surprisingly did not visit the museum once. Unfortunately it was a gloomy day and I came across the harbour. There I catched a glimpse of a beautiful scenery showing great horizontals and verticals with the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk at the back. I liked showing some curves of the ship hulls. They are reflected in the basic shapes of the clouds. These round curves also serve as a counterweight for the straightness in the vertical alignment of the buidings.

Caesura

The horizontal caesura splits the drawing in half. Personally I like the difference in quantity and quality of objects in both parts. The upper half suggests lots of buildings that show sutble tonal shifts, The lower part is lighter but contains a couple of dark structures, being the quay and the ships. This one pleases me more than a previous graphite pencil drawing ‘Zierikzee – 05-10-17’. That one is quite alright but shows more impressionism than originally intented. Normally landscapes and cityscapes with lots of sun and cast shadows deliver greater drawings. This one of Dordrecht is an exception though.

Graphite pencil drawing (Pentel 0.5 mm, 3B) on Lana Bristol paper (21 x 29.7 x 0.1 cm) - A4 format)

Artist: Corné Akkers

Additional Information