George Hendrik Breitner made this study with pencil on paper, and it's currently housed in the Rijksmuseum. What's really striking here is the immediacy, right? It’s like catching a thought in mid-air. Breitner uses these quick, searching lines that don't quite settle, they keep moving, keep questioning. For me, that's the beauty of drawing, it's a process of discovery. I can almost feel the pressure of the pencil on the page, these delicate lines. You can see how the paper's texture influences each mark, giving it a kind of vibration. Look at the lower part of the head, how the line thickens and then fades, suggesting a weight, a volume that's barely there. It reminds me of de Kooning, in its willingness to leave things unresolved. Breitner's sketch feels like a fragment of something larger, like a fleeting impression. It tells us that art is an ongoing experiment, it’s a way of seeing and thinking that never really arrives at a final answer.