Annotaties 1896 - 1897

Curator: Breitner’s “Annotaties,” dating from around 1896-1897, is a drawing held here at the Rijksmuseum. It seems to be a page from a sketchbook. Editor: The initial impression is definitely unfinished—a whisper of a landscape caught in charcoal and ink. I notice immediately the rosy hue of the toned paper. Curator: The toned paper stock itself is interesting; this was often a cheap alternative offering a middle tone for amateur sketches. See how the marks of the graphite sit on its surface? We might assume this book accompanied Breitner as he engaged with the burgeoning urbanization around him. Editor: I'm interested in the geometry, though faint. Notice how the landscape's horizontal lines bisect the verticality suggested by the faint script and arithmetic notation to its lower right. It's a dynamic tension between observation and the process of reckoning, as if capturing space is itself an equation. Curator: I find the scribbled handwriting and numerical notations along the bottom edge really fascinating, and wonder what they signified in terms of labor; they invite us to consider how the conditions of making shaped Breitner's perception. Was he, in some way, accounting for material use while quickly recording his surroundings? Editor: That said, there’s a real immediacy here. The application of materials almost reads as performative. The artist allows us to observe the very first strokes, giving this amateur work the authority of expression and intentionality. Curator: True, and in his notebooks, the division between studies of figures or architecture and these jottings can be artificial. One must wonder how he used these “annotations.” It feels like more than simple observation. Editor: Annotations indeed! Viewing the work from both our perspectives certainly illuminates different aspects of what may well have been a fleeting artistic moment. Curator: Agreed. Hopefully our visitors now have new questions to ask themselves.