Studie, mogelijk van een landschap met water c. 1886 - 1923

Curator: I am immediately struck by the energetic application of graphite. The tonal range feels expansive for such a preliminary sketch. Editor: We’re looking at “Studie, mogelijk van een landschap met water” or "Study, possibly of a landscape with water," a graphite drawing dating from roughly 1886 to 1923, by George Hendrik Breitner, held here at the Rijksmuseum. To me, it's difficult to tell that this is a landscape, as it reads as a very stark, very urban portrait study. I'm thinking about what landscape means to the urban poor and their relation to accessing and benefiting from outdoor spaces. Curator: The hatching, the cross-hatching, it all contributes to a tremendous dynamism, whether land, water, or figure, I find this to be highly self-referential as it centers the art of drawing. Editor: But even the act of sketching—drawing as an almost subconscious action—becomes political when we consider who has the leisure to do so, who is represented, and whose stories are amplified as a result of this artistic study. The unfinished quality almost renders this scene ghostly. Who inhabited that area? What industries influenced the growth or decay of these locales during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the probable time this artwork was made? What labor rights or injustices existed during the era that may be hidden under the veil of impressionism? Curator: I see the formalism on display—the immediacy—more akin to, say, Constantin Guys. He similarly found beauty in contemporary life. Editor: That tension between individual expression and collective experience, and the privilege of documentation—Breitner belonged to a generation grappling with rapid social changes and increased stratification, which in turn made a great impact on social-artistic representations. Curator: I return to the structural elements—the solid, nearly cubist blocks of shade; the pure geometry that comprises its core identity. I find that, at the very least, this piece prompts much fruitful, formal, study of mark making. Editor: In short, it invites an exploration of whose narratives we choose to remember.