Gezicht op de hoek van de Kalverstraat en het Singel te Amsterdam c. 1902

This drawing of the corner of Kalverstraat and Singel in Amsterdam was made by George Hendrik Breitner. It’s just graphite on paper, but it's so much more than that. I can imagine him there, quickly, trying to get it all down. You can almost see him squinting. The lines are not fussy, they’re economical. I bet he's thinking about tone, about the fall of light. I wonder if he was cold or thinking about lunch? I feel close to this drawing, perhaps because it's about place. How often I have walked somewhere and felt like I have really seen it, only when I start to draw it. What does it mean to really look? What does it mean to really see? Artists are always looking at other artists, at life; making something, and then someone else sees it and makes something else. And that's how it goes.