Figuurstudies c. 1900 - 1923

George Hendrik Breitner made these figure studies with pencil, and you can see them today at the Rijksmuseum. What’s lovely about looking at other artists’ studies, is that you can just imagine them, pencil in hand, trying to figure things out, scribbling away. I feel kinship with Breitner. He’s working something through, and probably making a lot of ‘mistakes’ but I feel that his process of investigation is so present in these marks on the page. The erasure marks are like ghosts, the shadows of previous attempts. It makes me think about how artists are constantly working through ideas. The eye, the hand, the pencil, the paper, it all combines into a form of embodied expression, and reminds me that there are no mistakes, just marks. The art of painting isn’t only about what you see in a gallery, but how the painting was made. And this is visible in every single stroke. We are all connected through time, exchanging ideas with one another, like an ongoing conversation that began centuries ago.