Gezicht op Prinseneiland te Amsterdam c. 1903

This sketch, "Gezicht op Prinseneiland te Amsterdam," was made by George Hendrik Breitner using graphite on paper. It's cool to see how an artist like Breitner used a sketchbook. It’s all about the process, right? The quick, scribbled lines... you can almost feel him capturing a fleeting moment. Look at the right page, the way he's built up the shading with these energetic strokes. It's not about precision; it's about capturing the essence of the scene. The texture of the paper comes through too, those lines giving it a kind of rhythm. There’s a really nice contrast with the vaguer shapes on the left page, where he's just feeling things out. It’s like a visual diary. Sketches like this remind me of other artists like Van Gogh, who also used drawing as a way to understand the world around them. It's like they're having a conversation across time. It’s not about perfect representation. It’s about the feeling, the gesture, the moment of seeing.