Twee vrouwen in de deuropening van Nieuwe Teertuinen 33 te Amsterdam c. 1898 - 1914

This sketch was made by George Hendrik Breitner, at an unknown date, with a pencil. It's currently housed in the Rijksmuseum. Looking at this drawing, it’s all about how Breitner lays down these soft, tentative lines, feeling out the space and the figures. It's like he's thinking through the drawing, right there on the page. The lines aren't precious; they overlap and sometimes go astray, which gives the piece a real sense of immediacy. You can almost feel the give and take of the pencil on paper. There's a wonderful sense of the artist figuring things out as he goes. I keep coming back to the way the women are rendered. They’re not precise, but there’s a gesture that captures a mood, a moment. It reminds me a bit of Degas and his sketches of dancers – that same sense of capturing movement and fleeting moments. Art is like a big conversation, and here, Breitner is adding his own intimate, observational voice.