Gezicht op bebouwing c. 1903

This is George Hendrik Breitner's drawing of a building, made with graphite on paper. It looks like the artist was trying to get a sense of the architecture, rapidly trying to capture the essence of the structure. I feel like he was trying to get the proportions right first, like a sculptor trying to find the form within a block of marble. I wonder, was he standing on a busy street, trying to capture the scene before the light changed? Was he thinking about how the building fit into the city around it? The marks are so sparse, so tentative, but they're full of energy. It reminds me of some of my own sketchbook work, searching for forms and ways of understanding the world. It’s that feeling of being in the moment, of trying to catch something fleeting. It’s exciting to think about how artists are always building on each other's ideas. This little sketch feels like a small piece of that conversation, an open-ended exploration.