Man met hoed 1887 - 1891

Editor: This is "Man met hoed," or "Man with Hat," a graphite drawing by George Hendrik Breitner, made between 1887 and 1891. It's housed here at the Rijksmuseum. It feels very raw and immediate, like a glimpse into the artist's thought process. How do you interpret this work? Curator: Breitner’s sketchwork invites us into the artist's mind, but it is also a reflection of a cultural milieu. Hats themselves held tremendous symbolic weight in the late 19th century. They signified class, profession, and even personality. But here, in this sketch, that specificity is blurred. Does the sketch become almost more a concept of “man” rather than “*a* man”? Editor: That's interesting. It’s like the hat, normally so descriptive, is almost generic here. More of a signifier than an identifier. Curator: Precisely! And the lines themselves… look how tentative, almost exploratory, they are. He's searching for the essence of the form, isn’t he? Editor: Definitely. You can almost feel him deciding where the lines *should* be. Curator: It becomes a symbolic quest, this act of finding the 'true' line. Every stroke builds on previous ones and the image oscillates. You get that feeling, too? Editor: Yes! Almost like he’s building the idea of a man in real-time. I keep coming back to the hat… like the idea came from seeing the hat on the figure, the drawing becoming secondary to the man's essence.. Curator: It’s as if Breitner uses this readily-accessible motif – this recognizable 'hat' – as the keystone for a collective memory and cultural identity he is attempting to capture. What has stayed with you most from looking at the artwork? Editor: The feeling that art is a process of discovery more than just a final product. Curator: For me too. It underlines how every line tells a story that echoes long after its creation.