Annotaties c. 1915 - 1916

This notebook page, by George Hendrik Breitner, is a field of pale grey supporting some handwritten notes in pencil, probably made on the go. I imagine Breitner walking around Amsterdam, or wherever, with his notebook, jotting down places, names, and numbers that interested him. For me, this page is an interesting exercise in mark making. The flowing cursive text is very different from the bold expressive marks you see in his paintings. I wonder if this page was done quickly, intuitively, or if it was carefully planned out. I imagine that the act of writing these notes was a way for Breitner to organize his thoughts and plan out future paintings, or maybe they were related to personal encounters. I think artists are always looking at each other’s work, even across time and space, and seeing what others are doing can spark new ideas and possibilities, sometimes unconsciously. So, in this intimate notebook page, we have an insight into the mind of an artist, and the everyday observations that might inspire him.