Schetsboek met 16 bladen 1886 - 1903

This is a sketchbook, dating from around the turn of the century, by the Dutch artist George Hendrik Breitner. It's made of paper, bound within card covers, and would have been very portable for the artist. The marbled cover, with it's blue-green swirls, is suggestive of the kind of surface you might see in a tradesman's shop: perhaps a bookbinder, or printmaker. Breitner was known for his depictions of everyday life, and it seems he also embraced ordinary materials. We can imagine him using this humble object, filling it with sketches of the bustling city of Amsterdam. In those days, sketchbooks were not precious objects, they were working tools. Like a carpenter's workbench, or a seamstress's sewing kit, this sketchbook gives us insight into the labor and process behind Breitner's art. It reminds us that even the most refined works of art are rooted in the everyday world of materials and making.