Schetsboek met 25 bladen 1873

This sketchbook, containing 25 blank pages, was used by George Hendrik Breitner, a Dutch painter who died in 1923. Bound in what appears to be simple card, this sketchbook is a common, functional object. Its value lies not so much in the materials, which are of a relatively low grade, but in the labour and time Breitner would have invested in its contents. Bound sketchbooks like this one allowed artists to capture fleeting impressions, to work on the move, or simply to keep their ideas together in one place. The unadorned cover, with its utilitarian typography, doesn't shout 'art.' But this is precisely the point. It's a reminder that artistic creation isn't always about precious materials and painstaking craft. Sometimes, it's about the everyday act of observation, and the tools we use to record our world. This object challenges conventional notions of artistic value, inviting us to consider the significance of the unseen labour and the personal context behind every work of art.