Gezicht op de Prinseneilandsgracht te Amsterdam 1907 - 1909

George Hendrik Breitner made this sketch of the Prinseneilandsgracht in Amsterdam, using a soft, smudgy graphite that's all about capturing a fleeting impression. It's like he's thinking out loud on paper, searching for the bones of the scene. Look at how he’s built the image, with layers of scribbled lines forming shapes that become buildings and boats. The graphite is dense in some areas, creating a dark mass, and light in others, almost disappearing into the paper. It’s as if Breitner wants you to feel the weight of the city but also its impermanence, like a memory fading at the edges. See the way he's rendered the buildings on the left? They're all angles and cross-hatching, a jumble of lines that somehow resolves into a solid form. It’s a little like Cézanne, who used planes of color to construct his landscapes, or maybe even Guston, with his clunky, almost awkward forms. But here, it’s all about the touch, the pressure of the pencil on the page, a dance between intention and accident. It reminds us that art is never really finished, just abandoned at a certain point.