Gezicht op een bordes in de Leidsekruisstraat te Amsterdam, ter hoogte van de Korte Leidsedwarsstraat 1907

Curator: This intriguing drawing is entitled "Gezicht op een bordes in de Leidsekruisstraat te Amsterdam, ter hoogte van de Korte Leidsedwarsstraat." George Hendrik Breitner created it in 1907. Editor: My god, what a mouthful of a title! It looks like someone scribbled down a dream they had about a street corner. Energetic, almost violent, but unfinished. Curator: It certainly captures a moment in time, an immediacy of observation. Breitner was deeply interested in portraying the everyday life of Amsterdam, and his sketchbooks offer unique insights into his artistic process. Consider the social context: the rapid urbanisation of Amsterdam in the early 20th century, and how that impacted its citizens. Breitner found beauty and significance in those ordinary, quickly changing scenes. Editor: I love how raw it is. You can almost feel him there, standing on that street, charcoal in hand, desperately trying to capture the feeling of the place before it vanishes. You can tell, just by the squiggles and hastily drawn lines that it's more about capturing an impression rather than representing any street accurately. Did Breitner always use this furious sketching style? Curator: Breitner, deeply influenced by Impressionism, experimented with various techniques to depict movement and atmosphere. This sketch represents his approach to fleeting moments. If you look at this drawing and connect it to his work photographing Amsterdam you will notice that he wasn’t simply interested in depicting scenes. He was attempting to translate the essence of modern urban existence onto paper and film, examining its effects on human beings who were both shaping and being shaped by the metropolis. Editor: You've got to wonder what else was going on in his head that day. Was he late for lunch? Madly in love? Wondering whether or not to buy a new hat? So much is in that messy sketch – joy, maybe a bit of existential dread, and definitely, the grumbling of the stomach! Curator: Considering the social and economic disparities of the time, particularly how they manifested in urban spaces like Amsterdam, one must wonder whether his work challenged these dynamics. Did he seek to offer critical commentary through his artistic choices or was Breitner reproducing class divisions? Editor: What a guy, and what an image, a fragment that tells a story, both chaotic and considered. Curator: Indeed, a document and a visceral expression combined.