Gebouw met tuitgevel 1908

George Hendrik Breitner made this sketch of a building with a gable roof with charcoal. It's at the Rijksmuseum, and it shows how a drawing is really a set of choices. Look at how Breitner used the side of the charcoal to create these broad areas of tone, like on the roof, or how he suggested the form of the building through the lightest of lines. There's a real sense of speed and immediacy, of him just grabbing the scene in front of him. You can almost feel the pressure of his hand on the paper, right? I think about someone like Philip Guston when I see this. They both have this way of making marks that feel so direct and unfiltered. It’s like you’re seeing the artist’s thought process right there on the surface.