Gezadeld paard 1880 - 1882

Curator: Before us is George Hendrik Breitner's "Gezadeld Paard," or "Saddled Horse," created between 1880 and 1882. It's currently held at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: It has the immediacy of a quickly captured moment. I'm drawn to the lightness of touch; those pencil lines create a powerful impression with incredible efficiency. Curator: Breitner, known for documenting Amsterdam's street life, often used sketchbooks. The work itself embodies a sort of artistic labor and reflects Breitner's dedication to capturing reality. Editor: The lines coalesce just enough to define form and space, it also reminds of Japanese sumi-e ink wash painting in terms of style and composition. But tell me, considering it’s just a quick sketch, what sort of audience was he considering while making the work? Curator: Considering this piece comes from a personal sketchbook, the primary audience would most likely have been himself, or possibly a close friend or fellow artist with whom he shared his process. This practice allows us a candid glimpse into his work... Editor: Perhaps, he’s workshopping how he could translate fleeting street scenes into his bigger canvasses, a step removed from observation? I can feel a sense of underlying construction, almost architectural. Curator: Absolutely. One might view this sketch not only as a preliminary exercise but also as a commodity in its own right. A way for the artist to test different pictorial arrangements but ultimately, produce artworks to be sold or shown. Editor: So you think Breitner saw the sketchbook page as an extension of the formal salon tradition but reframed on the scale of everyday experience? Curator: Precisely. It challenges a fixed boundary between the academic and everyday. By producing these sorts of 'drafts,' Breitner effectively turns work and labor into a form of high art that would normally reside only in traditional painting and sculpture. Editor: It shows that art, even in its most nascent stage, holds an undeniable aesthetic power and, on a more theoretical note, exposes labor conditions of representation, perhaps? Well, that gives me a lot to consider about the status of “works in progress”... Curator: It’s fascinating how much such a simple work can tell us about artmaking, the relationship of labor, and the artistic moment.