Vrouw en kind c. 1902

George Hendrik Breitner made this drawing, Vrouw en kind, with a dark pencil, probably in his studio. It's all about the energy of the hand moving across the page, isn’t it? You can almost feel Breitner's breath as he’s trying to capture the fleeting moment of a woman with her child. I like to imagine Breitner quickly sketching, trying to capture the essence of the scene before it disappears. The soft, smudged lines create a hazy atmosphere, like a memory fading at the edges. There’s a really beautiful shorthand in the way he defines the forms, the bare minimum of detail. It reminds me a little bit of Degas. I imagine Breitner trying to push the boundaries of what a drawing could be. It's so exciting to see artists riffing off each other, reinventing the language of painting and drawing. I'm inspired by the idea of a conversation across time, with each artist contributing their unique perspective to the ongoing dialogue.