Architectuurstudies 1886 - 1923

George Hendrik Breitner made this drawing called Architectuurstudies with a dark crayon or pencil, and it’s like a fleeting thought, captured. Look at those lines, scribbled and confident, trying to grasp at a sense of space. I can almost feel him there, squinting, quickly trying to get it down. What’s he thinking about? The bare bones of the city, maybe? Or the way light hits the buildings? I bet he was cold, standing there on the street. That one dark line, slashing down the middle – is it a shadow? Or a building? And how he’s left so much unsaid. You have to fill it in yourself. It reminds me of Diebenkorn, how he could make so little say so much. Artists are always talking to each other like that, across time, inspiring each other. This drawing feels like a question, not an answer.