Paard met hoofdstel c. 1893s - 1903s

This quick sketch of a horse’s head and foreleg, made by George Hendrik Breitner, is a study in charcoal, figuring out form. Look at the immediacy of the marks. Breitner isn't trying to show off. The way he suggests the form with just a few lines is what's interesting. See how the charcoal sits on the page, not quite filling it, but activating the whiteness around it. I love that the paper is allowed to breathe. There's a tentative quality to the marks – they're not overworked, more like a suggestion than a statement. The charcoal is thick in some places, like around the horse’s ear, then fades into a soft grey, elsewhere. Think of Degas' drawings of horses and dancers; he, too, was trying to capture movement, to grasp a sense of fleeting life. Like Degas, this drawing feels unfinished, but it’s in that incompleteness that we find something really beautiful.