Gezicht in het Begijnhof te Amsterdam met de toren van de Engelse Hervormde Kerk 1907

George Hendrik Breitner made this sketch of the Begijnhof in Amsterdam with graphite on paper. Look closely at how Breitner approached the page with a kind of exploratory energy, the process revealed, never overworked. The texture of the paper plays a big part here, the rough tooth of it interacting with the soft, smudgy graphite. See how some lines are confident and dark, while others are light and almost hesitant? I love that open quality. It’s like he’s thinking through the image right in front of us. Notice the dark, curved mark in the bottom left of the image? The thickness of the line, the way it loops back on itself, has a real physicality. It’s a simple mark, but it anchors the whole composition, giving the eye a place to rest amidst all the tentative lines. Breitner reminds me of the French artist, Bonnard, who also captured everyday life with an incredible lightness of touch. Like Bonnard, Breitner shows us that art is about more than just representation, it’s about feeling, about capturing a fleeting moment in time.