Stoomboot op het IJ ter hoogte van de Barentszkade te Amsterdam c. 1892 - 1923

This is George Hendrik Breitner’s sketch of a steamboat on the IJ, done with pencil, probably in situ, in Amsterdam. You know, there’s something so satisfying about seeing the bones of an artwork laid bare like this. It’s all in the process. The materiality of the graphite on paper is so evident; each line, each decision, a testament to Breitner’s observational skills and his willingness to capture the world as he saw it. I keep coming back to the prow of the boat, which he renders with these confident, angular strokes. See how it juts out, disrupting the flatness of the page, becoming almost sculptural. There's a kind of kinship with artists like Philip Guston, who also embraced the raw, unfiltered energy of mark-making. Like them, Breitner shows us that art isn't about perfection, but about the messy, beautiful struggle to make sense of the world. And that, my friends, is something worth celebrating.