Twee paarden in een landschap c. 1882 - 1912

George Hendrik Breitner captured this scene of ‘Twee paarden in een landschap’ in a simple pencil sketch, sometime between 1880 and 1923, at the Rijksmuseum. Here we see two horses, harnessed and ready, standing in a flat landscape. The horse, throughout history, carries a heavy symbolic weight. Consider, for example, the horses of Saint Mark's Basilica in Venice. These bronze figures, symbols of power and victory, were transported from Constantinople, bearing witness to the ebb and flow of empires. Similarly, we can reflect on the Paleolithic cave paintings in Lascaux, where horses gallop across stone walls, representing humanity's deep, primal connection with these animals, embodying humanity’s reverence and projection of power. Even in Breitner’s unassuming sketch, we can sense a powerful and primal connection, which echoes through the ages, reminding us of our collective, subconscious fascination with the horse. This modest sketch evokes a sense of continuity, where past and present merge, revealing the enduring presence of these symbols in our shared cultural memory.