Drie studies van het hoofd van een oude man c. 1882

Editor: Here we have "Three Studies of the Head of an Old Man" by George Hendrik Breitner, dating from around 1882. It's a pencil drawing on paper. There's something so intimate and immediate about seeing a sketchbook page like this. What strikes you about it? Curator: The materiality is key here. The cheapness of the paper, the quick, almost frantic, application of pencil – these tell us about the economics of art production. This isn’t about a polished finished piece but about the raw labor of seeing and recording. Editor: I hadn’t thought about it that way. I just saw it as capturing fleeting impressions. Curator: But whose impressions? Breitner’s. Consider his social standing as an artist in Amsterdam, and the working class subject of his sketch. Are we witnessing a genuine interest in the subject or is this simply raw material to be mined and consumed by the artist? Think about the act of sketching itself - a rapid extraction of visual information, transforming a lived reality into artistic capital. Editor: That makes me look at it differently. So, even the choice of subject matter, and the act of drawing itself, can be viewed in terms of labor and consumption? Curator: Absolutely. And the reproductive technology of the drawing – its potential for being copied and distributed – speaks to a burgeoning art market, transforming even the most seemingly personal sketch into a commodity. How does it change your understanding when considering it this way? Editor: I think it pushes beyond just thinking of the artwork as something aesthetically pleasing. It gives insight into social and economic realities, even from something as simple as a sketch. Curator: Exactly. We are challenged to see beyond the surface.