Studies van een man op een stoel 1886 - 1923

George Hendrik Breitner created this sketchbook page called "Studies van een man op een stoel," or "Studies of a Man in a Chair" with a pencil. Breitner was a flâneur, capturing the daily life of Amsterdam at the end of the 19th century. These sketches offer an intimate glimpse into the artist’s process. The subjects, rendered in quick, confident lines, are all men dressed in the attire of the bourgeoisie. Breitner’s work often focused on the lives of ordinary people, yet the working class and women were frequently missing. These sketches speak volumes about who was seen, and who was not, in the artistic and social landscape of his time. In Breitner’s Amsterdam, class and gender dictated visibility, and these sketches remind us to question whose stories are told and whose remain in the margins.