Nieuwe Teertuinen te Amsterdam, gezien vanaf de Sloterdijkbrug c. 1903

George Hendrik Breitner made this drawing of Nieuwe Teertuinen in Amsterdam with pencil on paper, probably in a sketchbook. You know, sometimes a sketch has more immediacy than a painting. Here, on the left page, there’s this cluster of shapes, like he’s figuring out the architecture of the scene, and then, next to it, a fainter rendition, almost like a ghost image. I love how Breitner lets us see his thinking, the way he revisits and refines his lines, but also leaves the earlier marks visible. It’s like he's saying, “Here’s the world, and here's how I’m trying to make sense of it.” Think about the way Guston would leave his process visible, the pentimenti, the changes of mind right there on the canvas. Breitner is doing something similar here, inviting us into the studio, into his head.