Afbraak van oude gebouwen te Amsterdam 1912

George Hendrik Breitner made this drawing of the demolition of old buildings in Amsterdam with graphite on paper. Look at these lines, so quickly laid down, one after the other, almost like musical notes. The artist is searching for a subject in the midst of change. A building in the process of coming down is such an apt metaphor for painting itself, which comes into being through layering, shifting, and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. What might Breitner have been thinking when he made this? Maybe he was pondering the ephemeral nature of cities and the relentless march of time. I can almost feel the artist's hand moving swiftly across the paper, capturing the essence of a moment that is both destructive and strangely beautiful. The simplicity of the graphite allows for a direct connection to the artist's vision, stripped down to its bare essentials. These humble materials remind us that art isn't always about the grand gesture, it is about the accumulation of small acts of mark-making, an ongoing conversation between artists across time.