Vrouw op een brug in Amsterdam 1909

George Hendrik Breitner sketched this "Woman on a Bridge in Amsterdam" on paper, and I can imagine him in a fug of charcoal dust, furiously capturing the fleeting scene before him. Look at how the scene emerges from this tangle of marks, the lines scratching across the page to suggest a figure amidst the cityscape. Was it a gloomy day? Did he stop to think? I imagine him squinting, pushing the charcoal into the paper, then backing away to look again. There's an honesty here that you find in Edgar Degas and Käthe Kollwitz—the making is visible. It’s a kind of conversation across time and place, this connection, and it reminds us that art isn't just about what's depicted, but how the artist sees, thinks, and feels their way through the world. It’s about the exchange of ideas, and how that exchange shapes our own vision.