Boot, waarschijnlijk bij de Nieuwe Teertuinen te Amsterdam 1912 - 1919

This sketch of a boat near the Nieuwe Teertuinen in Amsterdam was made by George Hendrik Breitner, probably in one of his sketchbooks. The marks are incredibly direct and economical. Look at how Breitner uses the barest minimum of lines to suggest form and space. The whole thing feels so immediate, like he’s trying to capture a fleeting moment. There’s a real physicality to the lines themselves – some are dark and assertive, others are light and tentative, and you can almost feel the pressure of his hand on the paper. Notice the almost ghostly quality of the sketch on the left page, like a memory fading into the background. Breitner’s work always reminds me of Degas, in that he was fascinated by the everyday and the ephemeral. Like Degas, he wasn’t afraid to leave things unresolved, embracing the beauty of the unfinished. It reminds us that art is a process of exploration rather than a quest for definitive answers.