Studieblad met paarden 1881 - 1883

Curator: Here we have "Studieblad met paarden," or "Study Sheet with Horses," by George Hendrik Breitner, created between 1881 and 1883. It’s currently held here at the Rijksmuseum. The piece is a pencil drawing. What’s your first take? Editor: It feels like a glimpse into a working sketchbook, the hurried capturing of movement. I love the rawness. Curator: Breitner was deeply involved in documenting the working class and urban life. These studies offer insight into his process. Think of the labor of making, not just the romantic vision of the artist, but the craft involved. What choices reveal that labour, I wonder. Editor: The lack of finish. They’re gestures, almost, these horses. You can almost see his hand moving quickly, trying to get the essence of the animal down before it shifted. There’s also an undeniable sensitivity there. Did he care about them? Curator: Consider the context – Breitner and his contemporaries grappled with representing modernity, industrialization, the role of animals within these frameworks. How does mass transit change horse use? Are they beasts of burden still or beasts for leisure? These are considerations to read into a sketch, an ostensibly simple piece of ephemera. Editor: You're right; I see that tension now. This wasn't about the idealized romantic animal, but rather a tool, perhaps. There's almost a sense of detachment, especially in the sketch on the right. So clinical. So how do you respond to that? It does take on a different cast as an exercise, like writing the alphabet or doing scales... but do scales have this feel of lived history? Curator: Exactly! Even a seemingly simple sketch reveals volumes about the artist’s intentions and the world they inhabited. The materiality, the mass produced pencil used to capture this study on probably mass produced paper, makes it a reflection on labor at every stage. Editor: I’m glad you nudged me to think more historically. At first, this drawing just gave me an immediate sensory jolt...but it also mirrors, on some level, how we experience a city. Quick observations that never let us pause. The piece becomes both document and experience. Curator: Indeed. Each line holds so much within it; even sketches can reveal a tapestry of societal complexities, as long as we ask. Editor: Makes you wonder about the other drawings and sketches that haven't made it to a museum. The hidden work lives alongside.