Gezicht in Amsterdam 1893

Editor: So, here we have Breitner's "Gezicht in Amsterdam" from 1893, a pencil and ink drawing currently held in the Rijksmuseum. It looks like a page torn right out of the artist's sketchbook. It has a chaotic, almost frantic energy to it. What captures your eye in this seemingly simple sketch? Curator: "Chaotic" is a word I might also use to describe Breitner. It's tempting to impose order on the frantic lines, but I prefer to think of this drawing as a sensory experience rather than a landscape or a city view. Like glancing quickly around a busy port while keeping hold of the camera. If one lingers over it too long, one almost imagines feeling seasick. Tell me, Editor, do you think Breitner drew on location? Editor: That's a great question! The sketchbook format suggests immediacy, but the layered, almost frantic quality makes me wonder if it was perhaps developed from a series of impressions recorded elsewhere. Maybe it's a memory made visual? Curator: A memory made visual! I like the sound of that. Maybe a feeling? He's not rendering detail; he's grabbing… impressions. Like a visual poem. A reminder that even seeming disorder can possess its own sort of profound beauty. Do you find your opinion shifting on it now? Editor: Definitely! Initially, I saw chaos. Now I am getting a feel for this fresh visual poem—almost like jazz in the visual arts. Curator: Jazz indeed. So often we box the past up neatly and forget that what really made the best artist sing, no matter what era it was. Spontaneity. So it goes!