Vrouw achter een rijtuig c. 1895 - 1898

Curator: I’m struck immediately by the frenetic energy. It's almost like the drawing is vibrating! Editor: Indeed. What we’re looking at here is “Vrouw achter een rijtuig,” or “Woman Behind a Carriage,” a pencil drawing from around 1895 to 1898 by George Hendrik Breitner, housed right here at the Rijksmuseum. It is so immediate. The loose sketches, combined on these open pages... it breathes life! Curator: It’s clearly a study, isn't it? Capturing a fleeting moment. Look at the swift, assured strokes describing the carriage wheel on the left, and then juxtapose that with what seems to be clothes hung across what is probably a simple, straight chair. Editor: Yes, but Breitner's style isn't just about recording reality. The rough execution evokes a certain loneliness, I think. Or perhaps weariness? See the heaviness in those darker patches on the chair and the carriage... The carriage feels stranded. Curator: Perhaps, though I tend to see it as dynamic—the asymmetry, the varying pressure of the pencil...it suggests constant movement. The impressionistic capture feels like he wanted to illustrate how light changed those basic materials on the spot, like a painter in his plein air period. He might have paused there for just a minute before the driver urged on his horses. Editor: Light changes it but that is hardly the whole intention here! One could see those varying pressures also creating the very structure itself. Curator: Structuring an instant, really, wouldn't you say? Not structure in any monumental sense, but the momentary geometry of urban life. And Breitner captures the melancholy feeling it generates! Editor: It does capture a fleeting view, one that almost no longer exists except inside drawings like this one. Curator: A good place to preserve them, inside of a place of monument. What do you think, ready for coffee? Editor: By all means. After that brief flash of city life through Breitner's eyes.