Architectuurstudies c. 1886 - 1923

George Hendrik Breitner made this drawing with graphite on paper, and he called it Architectuurstudies. It’s like a quick thought, a fleeting impression captured with very little fuss. You can really see the artist working, line by line, almost like he's feeling his way around these buildings. The graphite is laid down in such a way that you can almost feel the roughness of the paper, which is part of the whole experience. It's not just about what’s depicted, but about the act of depicting. Check out how he uses these scribbled marks to create shadow and volume; that simple gesture is so powerful. It reminds me of Cy Twombly's loose, gestural drawings, where the process is as important as the subject. It's like Breitner is showing us the bones of the architecture, the basic structure. And that's what art is, isn't it? A way of seeing the world, and then showing it to others, bit by bit.