Gezicht op het Damrak te Amsterdam met de toren van de Oude Kerk c. 1902

This is a sketch of the Damrak in Amsterdam with the tower of the Oude Kerk by George Hendrik Breitner. Look at the pure, raw energy in these lines! It’s like catching a thought as it flies by. The marks are so minimal, just enough to give you the ghost of a building, a sense of space. See how the pencil barely kisses the page in some spots, and then digs in to define an edge? It’s all about suggestion, not description. That scumbled texture gives the whole scene a kind of hazy, dreamlike quality. The artist isn't trying to give us all the answers; instead, he's inviting us to complete the picture in our own minds. It reminds me a bit of Cy Twombly, in the way that it embraces the beauty of imperfection and the power of suggestion. It shows that art is about the process of seeing and thinking, not just about the final product.