Studie, abklatsch van een krijttekening 1909

This ‘Study, rubbing of a chalk drawing’ was made by George Hendrik Breitner, but we don’t know exactly when. I love that it’s a rubbing—think of the physical act involved, the pressure and movement needed to transfer the image from one surface to another! Looking at these smudgy marks, I’m imagining Breitner outside somewhere, maybe in a park, quickly capturing the bare bones of a tree or a cluster of branches. Did he want to record a scene quickly, or did he feel the pressure of weather? There is such freedom here in the way the chalk seems to dance across the paper, leaving traces of its movement. You can almost feel the artist’s hand at work. And the cool thing about drawings like this is that they’re not trying to be finished statements. Instead, they show the artist thinking and feeling, which, for me, is what art is all about: a conversation between the artist, the materials, and, eventually, us.