Gezicht op gebouwen aan het Damrak c. 1900 - 1901

Curator: Oh, it’s just the quickest little sketch, isn’t it? A cityscape in pencil on paper, made by George Hendrik Breitner around 1900. The Rijksmuseum calls it "Gezicht op gebouwen aan het Damrak," or a View of Buildings on the Damrak. Editor: Chaotic. Like a city block caught in a whirlwind, everything is scribbled, loose. There's a real raw energy. You can almost feel the urban grit. Curator: Absolutely! Breitner was all about capturing the energy of Amsterdam, wasn't he? Less concerned with the picturesque canal houses, more the pulse, the feel, the movement. And this drawing, I think, is a testament to that impulse, not pretty, honest! He would always claim "I am not a painter, I am a photographer" Editor: It makes me wonder, too, about the choices Breitner makes. Focusing on the built environment like this, almost aggressively, when turn-of-the-century Amsterdam was a hub of such radical social and political change. There were huge strikes and bread riots during the artist’s lifetime, I do wonder what motivated his choices in portraying Amsterdam. Curator: Well, he was of his time, though maybe not *for* his time? The Impressionist in him, he sought fleeting moments, the play of light on stone. A record, maybe, of something ephemeral, like people passing. Did he care what motivated him as much as us? Editor: But what does it mean to capture a fleeting moment when that moment is inherently tied to structures of power? I mean, these buildings represent capital, commerce. Ignoring that feels… complicit, doesn't it? To make a conscious choice to simply depict brick and mortar, but at what cost to the workers that lay the stones? Curator: Hmm. Interesting. I wonder if seeing these pencil strokes as raw and immediate makes you too eager to charge this cityscape as something it doesn't represent, after all it might only be a man, recording buildings and movement! Not everything needs to have a dark political meaning attached to it. Editor: And maybe by grappling with these very interpretations we are continuing to explore this city, 100 years after its original creation. If the buildings of this city have souls, it might only be right to question the meaning behind their very form. Curator: What a whirlwind, in fact! It really does get the mind racing...I like that it shows so much with so little!