Annotaties c. 1909

This sketchbook page, made by George Hendrik Breitner, is full of penciled notations, dates and calculations, but also these looping calligraphic lines, like a sample book for fonts or something. I can imagine him pausing from a larger painting, taking a moment to test out a curve or line, maybe thinking about the rhythm of a composition, or a title. These scribbles feel so intimate, don’t they? Like eavesdropping on the artist’s thought process. I love seeing the underbelly of making! The light graphite on the paper shows an experimental attitude. It feels like the artist is having a conversation with himself, playing with forms, testing ideas, and capturing fleeting thoughts, rather than trying to make a fully-resolved statement. It reminds me how art is this ongoing exchange across time and space, where we all riff off each other, inspiring and pushing each other forward!