Studie, mogelijk van een brug c. 1903

This sketch, possibly of a bridge, was made by George Hendrik Breitner and it's now over at the Rijksmuseum. I can really feel the artist here, trying to get down some ideas on paper, that's no easy thing to do! It looks like the marks were made swiftly, trying to capture a feeling. The quickness of the lines gives the whole sketch a real sense of immediacy and movement. Did Breitner stop for a moment to quickly sketch this bridge? What was he thinking about when he made this piece? The brown paper gives a warm ground to the whole thing, like a memory. What I find so compelling is how artists borrow from each other across time, and a simple sketch like this can hold so much information and inspiration. It really captures that wonderful sense of ongoing experimentation and uncertainty that all artists embrace.