Studie c. 1903

George Hendrik Breitner made this study using graphite on paper. I imagine him hunched over this page, scribbling away. These pages have got a life of their own; they aren't pristine or precious. The artist is working through something, making a private world public. Scribbles, calculations, and a quick sketch of a circle with some tangents—geometry trying to happen. Think about what’s going on in his head. What's he searching for here? I imagine he wants to map something out, some problem he is working through in his head. It’s like that feeling when you're trying to figure out a puzzle and the answer is right there, just out of reach. This relates to the broader practice of making studies, a way to work something out by sketching it out. We are all in conversation, each of us trying to make sense of the world in our own way, with the tools that we have at hand.