A View of the Nieuwe Kerk, Delft

This drawing by Johannes Huibert Prins features a humble scene in the Dutch city of Delft, emphasizing the everyday lives of its inhabitants. Rather than featuring the gothic spire of Delft's Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), Prins depicted thechurch from the side, where a washerwoman fills a bucket from the canal. Laborers, such as a man with a heavy wheelbarrow aided by a woman pushing him from behind, go about their business on the stone bridge. Prins's technique relied on minute detail-down to delineation of the mortar between each brick-achieved with astonishing control of ink applied with the point of a fine brush.

Credit: Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift