Annotaties c. 1892 - 1923

Editor: This is "Annotaties," a drawing made with ink and pencil on paper, created by George Hendrik Breitner somewhere between 1892 and 1923. At first glance, it reminds me of an old notepad with seemingly random numbers. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Ah, yes, Breitner's "Annotaties." It whispers to me of fragmented thoughts, the fleeting nature of ideas jotted down in haste, never fully realized. He’s giving us a glimpse into his raw, unfiltered process, like finding a forgotten page torn from his personal sketchbook. Almost a found object, an intimate peek into the mind of the artist at work, the messy calculations beneath the beautiful surface. Editor: It definitely feels very immediate, like a glimpse into a private world. Do you think the numbers themselves are significant? Curator: Perhaps, perhaps not. Maybe they were specific measurements for a painting, calculations of perspective, or maybe just numerical doodles, something to occupy the mind. Breitner, a true Impressionist soul, was keen on capturing everyday life and you can really sense that. You can almost imagine him, standing on a busy street, scribbling these down in his notepad while observing the scene unfolding before him. It makes me wonder, what specific image or thought sparked this flurry of numerical notation? What world exists around this captured, fractional glimpse of his mental record? Editor: I never considered it that way before, as capturing something about his observations. Thanks to you, this is more interesting than an arbitrary piece of paper. Curator: The beauty, my dear, often lies in finding the extraordinary within the ordinary.