Staande man in een landschap c. 1873 - 1886

George Hendrik Breitner made this sketch of a standing man in a landscape using graphite. The drawing is a quick study, an impression of a figure in a scene rather than a detailed portrait or landscape. Breitner was working in the Netherlands at the turn of the 20th century, a time when artists were increasingly interested in capturing everyday life and the changing urban landscape. We can see this in the quick, unrefined strokes, suggesting a fleeting moment observed in passing. Was this man a worker, a passerby? Breitner doesn't tell us. The Rijksmuseum, where this drawing is housed, plays a crucial role in preserving and presenting Dutch art. By studying Breitner's sketch in the context of his time, we understand how artists were responding to social changes. We can learn more about this period through archival research, studying exhibition histories, and reading contemporary accounts of Dutch life. Art, after all, is always made in particular institutional and social circumstances.