Twee paarden met tuig c. 1909

This George Hendrik Breitner drawing, two horses with harnesses, is all scratchy lines and ghostly smudges of graphite on paper. I can almost feel the artist at work, the charcoal stick digging in, then easing up, a dance between intention and accident. I wonder what he was thinking, Breitner, as he captured these horses? Was he trying to get at their strength, their quiet power? Or maybe just the way the light caught the leather of the harness? There’s something so immediate about the marks – short and quick – that speak of fleeting moments and quick decisions. That sense of seeing something, of feeling it, and then trying to get it down fast. I can imagine him squinting, pausing, and then, yeah! Go for it. Painters, we're always in conversation with each other, across time. We pick up where others leave off, push back, and try to say something new. But really, it’s all about the looking, the feeling, and the trying. And maybe, just maybe, leaving something behind that someone else can connect with.