Gezicht op een straat nabij de Notre-Dame te Parijs 1884 - 1886

George Hendrik Breitner captured this street view near Notre-Dame in Paris with a few strokes of charcoal. The lines, seemingly simple, echo the age-old symbol of the urban landscape as a stage for human drama. Consider the vertical lines depicting buildings, echoing the Tower of Babel, a motif symbolizing the striving for the divine and the inevitable fall. This architectural hubris is a recurring theme in art across cultures. Here, Breitner captures this with just enough detail to evoke the bustling heart of Paris. Think back to Piranesi's etchings of Rome—those stark, haunting urban visions. Breitner, too, finds a certain sublimity in the everyday, tapping into our collective memory of cities as both havens and labyrinths. This humble sketch acts as a potent reminder of the cyclical nature of urban life, where ambition and chaos dance in perpetual motion.