Gezicht op een rivier of kanaal Possibly 1907 - 1911

George Hendrik Breitner made this drawing of a river or canal with pencil on paper. It lives at the Rijksmuseum. Look at how Breitner’s marks build up a scene, but also break it down. On the right page, the tree leaps forward, drawn with thick, dark lines. It’s almost like he’s excavating the image, pulling it from the page. Then, on the left, everything dissolves into wispy grays, barely-there strokes. It’s the same hand, the same material, but a totally different approach, an oscillation between solid form and vaporous suggestion. I'm reminded of Philip Guston's late-career drawings. Both artists use the directness of drawing to capture the immediacy of thought, the feeling of things coming into being and fading away. Art doesn’t always have to be about answers. Sometimes, it’s about the questions.