Gezicht op de Dam te Amsterdam met de Nieuwe Kerk 1886 - 1923

This is George Hendrik Breitner’s sketch of the Dam Square in Amsterdam with the Nieuwe Kerk. It’s not dated, but you can almost smell the charcoal dust. The drawing looks like a snapshot, but not in the way a photograph is, it feels much more like an immediate sensory experience. Look at the way Breitner has captured the essence of the architecture with just a few lines. See how the weight of the building is suggested? It’s like he’s just grabbed a chunk of the world and smeared it down on the page. I love the rawness of the marks, the smudges and uneven lines. It gives the drawing a sense of immediacy. It reminds me of some of Degas’ monotypes, where he’s wiping away the ink to create these ghostly images. Like Degas, for Breitner, the act of drawing seems like a way of thinking.