Man met hoed en bril 1882

George Hendrik Breitner created this drawing, Man with Hat and Glasses, with pencil on paper, which is now held at the Rijksmuseum. The sketch offers an intimate glimpse into the artist's process, with its raw, immediate lines capturing the sitter's essence. Note how the composition is asymmetrically weighted, with the man's figure dominating the right side, while abstract shapes balance the left. The rough lines and the sketch's unfinished quality are not merely incidental; they embody a shift towards valuing process over polished product. Breitner destabilizes traditional portraiture by focusing on the immediacy of perception. He captured a fleeting moment, a raw fragment of life, rather than aiming for a timeless ideal. In its apparent incompleteness, the drawing invites us to participate in the act of seeing, challenging fixed notions of representation.