Gezicht op de Begijnhofsteeg te Amsterdam ter hoogte van het Spui c. 1900 - 1923

George Hendrik Breitner made this drawing of the Begijnhofsteeg in Amsterdam, and I bet he made it right there, on the spot, with a pencil and a sketchbook. I can just imagine him standing there, maybe a little cold, quickly capturing the scene. What I love about drawings is that they show you the thinking as it happens. Look at the way the lines are so tentative, so searching. Like he’s trying to feel his way into the scene, not just copy it. The buildings lean and tilt, the figures are just ghostly suggestions. It reminds me a little of Van Gogh’s drawings, that same urgency and directness. I’m sure he had to make decisions about what to include and what to leave out. How much detail to add, and where to stop. It’s like he’s inviting us to finish the drawing in our own minds. And maybe that’s what drawing is all about, an invitation to see the world in a new way.