Twee mannen achter een paard c. 1903

This sketch of two men behind a horse was made by George Hendrik Breitner, probably in a sketchbook, with graphite. It’s all about the tentative line, isn’t it? I mean, look at the way the horse seems to emerge from the paper, like a ghost, the graphite almost smudging away. The men are described with just a few lines, the artist using the bare minimum to suggest form, you can see this on the figure to the right of the page, the line trailing off into nothing. It’s like he’s thinking on the page, each mark a question, a search for the right form. I’m reminded of Degas, another artist who loved to capture fleeting moments and the everyday. Both artists share a fascination with movement, with the way things shift and change in time. But where Degas is all about capturing the grace and elegance of dancers, Breitner is drawn to the raw, gritty energy of the street. It’s less about capturing a final, resolved image, and more about the process of seeing, of trying to grasp something that’s always slipping away.