Sloterdijkbrug te Amsterdam, gezien vanaf de Nieuwe Teertuinen 1907

This drawing of the Sloterdijk Bridge in Amsterdam, seen from the Nieuwe Teertuinen, was made by George Hendrik Breitner with graphite on paper. Look at this landscape, rendered simply with line, it is a bare minimum of architecture. I wonder what he was thinking? Perhaps he wanted to capture the essence of a place, and not the detail? You know, sometimes less is more. The sketch might be a precursor to something bigger, maybe he was just figuring things out, or trying to get to grips with it. I love the rawness, and unpretentiousness of the sketch. It’s there for you to figure out, as much as it was there for him. Artists, we are all connected, trying to figure out how to say something with our work, you know? In this sketch, Breitner is saying something subtle, almost like a whisper.