Twee hoofden 1886 - 1923

This sketchbook page with two heads was made by George Hendrik Breitner using graphite. You can really see the process at work, right? The sketchiness, the way the graphite looks almost smudged into the paper – it’s like you're looking over Breitner's shoulder as he’s figuring things out. I love the texture of the paper; it's got that slightly rough, absorbent quality, like newsprint. The graphite sits right on the surface and catches the light. Look at the lower head, how the scribbled lines create shadows, almost like a topographical map of the face. It’s not about perfect representation, but about capturing a feeling, an impression. It reminds me a little of some of Philip Guston’s later drawings, where he's also using this kind of raw, immediate mark-making. Art's all about this ongoing conversation, right? Artists riffing off each other, finding new ways to see and feel the world. And it's never about one "right" answer, but about opening up possibilities.