Twee figuren bij een boot 1912

George Hendrik Breitner made this sketch of two figures by a boat on paper, and what I see is a study in seeing, or maybe in how little you need to suggest something. The drawing is all about bare essentials, right? You get the feeling of a quick capture, like jotting down a thought. The marks are so direct, like he's thinking with the pencil, letting the hand lead. I’m drawn to that patch of darker marks under the boat: quick, confident strokes that create a shadow. There’s a certain intimacy in these kinds of sketches; you’re getting a peek into the artist's process, the raw ingredients of a future painting maybe. It reminds me a bit of some of Degas’ drawings, that same sense of movement and fleeting observation. It’s like we’re catching Breitner in the act of seeing, trying to make sense of the world, one quick sketch at a time.