Gezicht op het Damrak te Amsterdam 1902

George Hendrik Breitner made this sketch of the Damrak in Amsterdam with pencil on paper, and it's like catching him in the act of seeing. The marks are searching, lines piled on lines, not quite describing, more like feeling around for the form, the space, the light. I love how the buildings are built up with such tentative strokes, a real sense of the artist trying to capture something fleeting. And then, look at the way the water is suggested with these swirling, almost chaotic lines. It reminds me a bit of some of Cy Twombly's sketches, that same sense of playful, restless energy. It’s more than just a sketch of a place, it’s a record of a process, of an artist thinking through drawing.