cubistic cityscape graphite pencil drawing framed fine art print mockup
Click me

Buy a print of this artwork through Redbubble

redbubble company logo
Click me

Also available as 80+ more products on Redbubble

Leiden – 16-11-15

Oude Rijn

This graphite pencil drawing ‘Leiden – 16-11-15 (Sold)’ is about a city I lived many a years in. The very canal you see here depicts ‘De Oude Rijn’. It’s a spot I know very well. The left bank I use to walk down every day to my girlfriend who lived nearby. So to me it was a kind of lovers lane. mMy room in the ‘Jan Vossensteeg’ to her place at the Uiterstegracht. 

Memory Lane

Sometimes I visit Leiden by bike and it’s packed with memories. Makes me a bit sad because all that’s left is bricks & mortar. On every corner I see friends who lived there but no one that I know in the streets anymore. Isn’t this the way it goes for all of us? We can’t hold on to things and people, no matter how we want to. However, detachment can lead to great insights and is necessary to move further. Makes it all the more fun to rediscover places of old and see them in a complete different way. Now that I’m older I have more eye for the beauty Leiden keeps on oozing out. Whereas I didn’t visit museums and tourist places of interest often, now I do. Even the canals I like anew!

Canals

Leiden is famous for its canals and put me in a sentimental mood once in a while. They remind me of my time as a student, walking back drunk from a party feeling sick smelling the water. Now I see how beautiful the light can reflect on sunlight reflects on the water. It is almost scattered as brilliant diamonds throughout the watery surface. The steam printing building in the back I kept rather simple. It is the beginning of the Hooglandsekerkgracht, leading to the church under the same name. If you’re interested you can see it on my previous drawing of Leiden.

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

Artist: Corné Akkers