Gezicht op de Sloterdijkbrug te Amsterdam 1907 - 1909

This is George Hendrik Breitner’s "View of the Sloterdijk Bridge in Amsterdam," and it looks like it was made with charcoal on paper. The cool thing about a drawing like this is how immediate it feels, right? The charcoal is so raw. You can see the smudges and the quick decisions, nothing hidden here. It's like the artist is saying, "Here's what I see, no fuss." Look at the way he’s built the bridge with these simple lines. They're not trying to trick you into thinking this is a real bridge; it’s more like an impression, a feeling of a bridge. There's this one dark stroke right at the top that anchors the whole image. It’s a gutsy move because it’s not really ‘realistic’, but it really holds everything together. This kind of directness reminds me of some of Guston’s late drawings, where it’s all about the act of drawing, the thinking-through-making. Art isn’t about answers, it’s about the questions you ask along the way.