Gevel, mogelijk van een gebouw op de Westelijke Eilanden te Amsterdam 1912

George Hendrik Breitner made this graphite sketch of a building in Amsterdam probably in the late 19th or early 20th century. It's funny, it looks like he got the basic structure down with a few quick, confident strokes, then went back in to add details and texture. The way the lines vary in thickness and darkness suggests he may have been experimenting with different pressures and angles of the graphite. I wonder if he smudged the graphite to create a sense of atmosphere or depth, like he was trying to capture not just the building itself, but the way the light hit it, the way it felt to be standing there looking at it. It makes you think about the whole process of looking and seeing, and how artists try to capture that experience on paper or canvas. Maybe that's what Breitner was after, too.