Landschap met een figuur bij een dier 1880 - 1882

George Hendrik Breitner made this landscape with figure and animal sometime in his lifetime, using pencil on paper. Breitner lived during a time when the Industrial Revolution was changing European society, and there was a growing interest in representing everyday life and the working class. Here, we see a fleeting sketch, capturing a figure alongside an animal—perhaps a horse. The quick strokes suggest movement and immediacy, drawing us into a specific moment in time. It makes us wonder who this figure is, what their relationship is to the animal, and what their story might be. Breitner, known for his paintings of Amsterdam street life, often sought to capture the raw, unvarnished realities of urban existence. The sketch invites us to consider the connections between humans and animals, and perhaps the labor and life that defined their shared existence.