Gezicht op een steeg in Amsterdam c. 1900 - 1923

George Hendrik Breitner made this drawing of a view of an alley in Amsterdam with graphite on paper. Look at the immediacy of these marks, a real sense of getting something down quickly, figuring it out as you go. The texture of the paper is visible beneath the marks, which aren’t blended or softened at all. You get a real sense of the artist’s hand moving back and forth, not trying to disguise the process. My eye is drawn to the little doorway at the end of the alley, where the lines get darker and denser, like he’s searching for something. It reminds me of some of Philip Guston’s later, more cartoonish drawings, where the process is all there on the surface. Both artists embrace a kind of awkwardness, a willingness to let the work be imperfect and unresolved. It’s like they’re saying, “This is how I see the world, take it or leave it.” And that’s what makes it so compelling.