Schets van een persoon met een last op de rug 1867 - 1923

Curator: This sketch, entitled "Schets van een persoon met een last op de rug," translates to "Sketch of a Person with a Load on Their Back." Created by George Hendrik Breitner between 1867 and 1923, it's a poignant figuration drawn in pencil on paper. You can see it in the Rijksmuseum’s collection. Editor: It feels instantly wearying, doesn’t it? The hunched figure, the undefined load… You can almost feel the strain radiating off the paper. There's something quite stark and unembellished in its raw form that is appealing. Curator: Exactly. Breitner, known for his impressionistic cityscapes and portraits, captures a sense of everyday life and labor. The lack of detail, that impressionistic quickness, forces us to fill in the blanks. Who is this person? What are they carrying? What's their story? It is interesting how he can put so much emotion using this form. Editor: The sketchiness lends it a certain universality. It's not a specific portrait so much as an evocation of burden. The angle kind of hides her features too, she looks as if she’s avoiding my gaze. Was Breitner interested in the worker’s plight, do you think? Curator: It's tough to say definitively, but Breitner's work often touched upon the realities of working-class life in Amsterdam. There is also something romantic about it too! It has the effect that some portrait paintings have where it transports you to a particular time. In those paintings there’s usually lavish clothes involved, but here he transports us through this simple subject matter, through pencil on paper! The Rijksmuseum context adds to that, too – thinking about where art and culture intersect in our collective experience. Editor: I can agree with that, it certainly resonates beyond just a visual document. It's a feeling, an empathetic gesture captured with incredible economy of line. Makes you want to help carry that load, even if you don’t know what it is, or if that’s something we can actually even help with… Curator: A heavy sketch for sure, even within a single line and mark on a paper. Editor: Yes, indeed. It's those unseen burdens that often weigh the heaviest, and I find Breitner captures that perfectly.