Slapende man 1886 - 1903

This is 'Slapende man', Sleeping Man, a drawing by George Hendrik Breitner, held at the Rijksmuseum. The work immediately strikes us with its raw, almost urgent quality. The composition is dominated by the figure, yet it's the stark lines and shading that capture the essence of sleep – a kind of surrender to formlessness. Breitner uses a monochromatic palette to amplify the textures, the roughness of the charcoal mirroring the disarray of sleep. Here, the medium itself becomes part of the message. The sketch-like quality disrupts any sense of classical beauty. The marks on the page aren't just lines; they’re traces of the artist's hand, of a fleeting moment captured. This approach aligns with the broader artistic and philosophical currents of the late 19th century, challenging established notions of what art should be, and prompting a re-evaluation of beauty, representation and meaning.