Gezicht op de Nieuwe Kerk te Amsterdam Possibly 1907 - 1911

George Hendrik Breitner made this drawing of the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam sometime around the turn of the last century. Just look at the raw energy of these quick marks on paper! It’s like witnessing Breitner thinking through line and form, his charcoal stick dancing across the page. I imagine him standing there, maybe a bit cold, his hand moving fast to capture the essence of the scene before the light changes. What was he thinking about as he worked? Was he trying to capture a sense of the weight of the architecture, the way the light reflected off the water? I feel like I can almost see him squinting, head tilted, trying to simplify the world into a series of lines. You know, artists are always in conversation with each other, even across time. Breitner’s quick sketch reminds me of some of Philip Guston’s late drawings – that same searching quality, a willingness to let the hand lead the eye. For me, both works show how the process of making art is really a form of embodied expression and investigation.