Hoofd in profiel en een paard c. 1883 - 1885

Editor: Here we have "Head in Profile and a Horse," a graphite and pencil drawing by George Hendrik Breitner, dating from around 1883 to 1885. There's something so raw and immediate about it, like a glimpse into the artist's private sketchbook. It feels very Impressionistic in its fleeting quality. What strikes you when you look at this work? Curator: Well, isn't it fascinating? It’s as if Breitner is whispering secrets onto the page. That tentative line work, those erasures we can almost still feel happening – it's like watching him think. The horse seems to emerge, or perhaps is dissolving back into the paper itself. Do you think the head at the bottom influences your view? Editor: I think it definitely adds to the intimate feeling. It's like two separate thoughts jotted down on the same page. The juxtaposition creates a dialogue, doesn’t it? The human head seems more grounded, while the horse has this ethereal quality you mentioned. Curator: Exactly! Breitner often captured everyday life in Amsterdam with this same immediacy, this sense of fleeting moments. He wasn’t afraid of the unfinished. This sketch feels almost like a haiku; distilling a much larger feeling or scene into its barest essentials. Does it leave you longing for more? Editor: Absolutely! It makes me want to rummage through all his sketchbooks. It makes me wonder if all these are studies, or perhaps things that come back and inhabit something that the master will create down the road. Curator: Precisely, these aren't mistakes, my friend, but opportunities... open doors! It's in these spaces that something genuinely authentic springs into life.