Gezicht op een straat met bomen 1917

George Hendrik Breitner made this sketch, ‘Gezicht op een straat met bomen’, using pen and ink to capture a street scene with trees. It’s all about capturing the moment, right? You can almost feel Breitner quickly jotting down what he saw. I find the sparseness of the drawing compelling. The bare page hosts delicate lines that delineate the trees’ skeletal forms. Look at the right-hand page, how he uses a few strokes to suggest depth and the layering of branches. There's one area in the lower right where the lines get a little tangled, a little messy – it's like he was working something out right there on the page. Breitner’s work reminds me a little of Whistler, in their shared interest in atmospheric effects and understated compositions. But where Whistler often went for a hazy, dreamlike quality, Breitner feels more immediate, more raw. To me, it's a reminder that art is often less about perfect representation and more about the act of seeing and responding.