Figuren bij een wagen voor een gebouw Possibly 1907 - 1911

George Hendrik Breitner made this sketch, 'Figures by a wagon in front of a building', with graphite on paper. It’s all in the Rijksmuseum now, but let’s imagine when Breitner made it. I wonder if Breitner was sitting somewhere, maybe in a cafe, rapidly capturing what he saw, the scene in front of him. The lines are jittery and free, scratched down fast. It’s like he's trying to catch a fleeting moment, the essence of the scene before it disappears. There’s a real sense of energy in the marks he makes; it's a direct record of his looking, his thinking, his seeing. I can almost feel the movement of the figures and the energy of the city around them. Breitner was part of a larger conversation about how to represent modern life. Painters are always responding to each other. I think that making a drawing is an act of conversation and exchange across time, inspiring creativity. It embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.