Bukkende man, mogelijk bij een machine 1885

George Hendrik Breitner made this sketch of a bending man, possibly near a machine, with charcoal on paper. The work is currently held in the Rijksmuseum. Breitner was a key figure in the Amsterdam Impressionism movement, which was focused on depicting everyday life in the city. Given the industrial subject matter, this drawing may have been a preliminary sketch for a larger painting, or may have been made to explore a new industrial area of Amsterdam. While the quick, loose strokes of the sketch give it an unfinished quality, it allows the viewer to get a sense of the pace of urban life and industry in the Netherlands at the turn of the century. To understand the social context of this work, one might look to sources documenting the rise of industrial labor in the Netherlands, as well as studies of the art market and the institutions that supported artists like Breitner.