Studieblad met mannen 1880 - 1882

Curator: Breitner created this work, "Studieblad met mannen," sometime between 1880 and 1882. It’s a pencil drawing currently held here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: My first impression is the sketchiness of it all. It feels intimate, like stumbling upon the artist's private observations, seeing a man captured so fleetingly. There's something melancholy about his gaze too. Curator: Fleeting, yes, definitely. These aren’t formal portraits. You get the sense he’s catching a likeness more than making a grand statement. The lines are so economical, yet they convey so much personality. I see a kind of…world-weariness? Or perhaps a quiet contemplation. Editor: I see a tension actually, between accessibility and exclusion. Sketchbooks, then and now, operate in a kind of paradoxical space, private notes that simultaneously reflect a wider societal milieu and engage with broader art-historical traditions of portraiture and observation. And here, the figure isn’t ennobled, glorified – but he also isn't destitute, clearly. He is just… there. Curator: Absolutely, and this everydayness, for me, aligns with a broader sense of democratization, this movement to capture ordinary people doing ordinary things. It moves away from a preoccupation with idealized figures, and looks at life lived by those existing outside privilege. There's a freshness here, that raw honesty I adore. Editor: I also appreciate that by keeping it raw and unpolished, Breitner, perhaps unintentionally, leaves room for the viewer’s projections, for interpretations that align with different cultural, gendered and class positions, despite the likely homogeneity of his intended audience. I also want to speak briefly on his approach to sketching the hands of the figures; this lends them weight, it offers depth. Curator: It reminds us of what he noticed, of what he found essential about this individual. In the same breath I imagine this form was simply easier to complete swiftly, and likely the goal here too, so perhaps it offers a view of life constraints too. Editor: Which makes the experience feel even more true-to-life, no? That these pieces would be constructed within moments. These rapid recordings help to capture their spirit. This way of portraying someone is in its essence almost punk, almost defiant; I enjoy that spirit very much. Curator: Yes, it invites me into the real. So much more appealing than artifice, isn’t it? Editor: Absolutely. And so it reveals, for all its limitations, this little drawing demands more consideration of not just artistry, but also our shared humanity.