Figuren bij een sleperskar met paard 1886 - 1923

George Hendrik Breitner made this little pencil drawing of figures with a horse and cart, it seems, without any specific date attached. It’s just a quick sketch, really, but there's a lot of information packed in. The horse, the cart, the figures – they’re all described with a kind of economical, almost diagrammatic line. But it's the way the marks vary in pressure and direction that really gets me. Look at how he suggests movement and weight with just a few strokes. There’s a real sense of looking, and then acting, a directness which reminds me of Daumier. The whole thing has a lovely, provisional quality – a glimpse of everyday life, captured on what looks like a page torn from a notebook. It feels intimate, like we're seeing the world through Breitner’s eyes, in real-time. It's a good reminder that art can be about the process of looking and recording, not just about the finished product.