Zittende meid 1867 - 1923

Editor: Here we have "Zittende meid," or "Seated Girl," a pencil drawing from George Hendrik Breitner, made sometime between 1867 and 1923. It’s a pretty simple sketch, but something about the pose feels very... modern, I guess? What do you make of it? Curator: Modern is a great word for it! There’s an immediacy here, isn’t there? Breitner’s less interested in perfect representation, more in capturing a fleeting moment, the gesture of a woman at rest. I imagine him sketching quickly, trying to grab the essence before it disappears, like trying to catch smoke. It almost feels… unfinished, intentionally so. Editor: Yeah! It definitely doesn’t feel like a formal portrait. It’s got that… incomplete quality. I mean, you can see other figures sketched faintly in the background. Why leave them in? Curator: Perhaps those background figures speak to the dynamism of modern life, a kind of visual echo, alluding to the bustling world outside the frame. Think of it like a half-remembered dream, still clinging to the edges of the main image. It draws me into a sense of lived reality rather than some constructed artifice. What feeling do you get from the way Breitner used the pencil itself? Editor: It's very… gestural, I suppose? You can see the speed and the pressure he used. Like he’s trying to convey… texture and volume, maybe? The smudging, the loose lines, it’s all very impressionistic. Curator: Exactly. It is a world of feeling, and suggestion. It doesn't offer clear edges but something much more interesting I think. I might steal his style myself and quickly catch the bus going home this evening. Editor: That’s… surprisingly relatable! It makes the artwork feel a lot less intimidating somehow. Thanks!