Huizen in aanbouw bij de Jan Pieter Heijestraat 1899

George Hendrik Breitner created "Huizen in aanbouw bij de Jan Pieter Heijestraat" with pencil on paper. The sketch captures a raw, almost skeletal view of buildings under construction. Breitner masterfully uses line to convey form and space, a hallmark of his approach to urban landscapes. The composition emphasizes vertical lines of scaffolding and building frames. The lines create a sense of depth and perspective, drawing the eye into the scene. The lack of detail invites us to focus on the underlying structure, the bare bones of the urban environment. Breitner was interested in depicting the everyday life of the city. Here, the unfinished buildings can be seen as a metaphor for the city itself - always evolving and in a state of flux. The sketch captures a moment of transition, a city in the making. This reflects a broader modernist interest in the dynamism and instability of modern life. The unfinished state of the buildings destabilizes any fixed meaning. This reinforces the idea of continuous change and the transient nature of urban existence.