Huizen aan een vaart, mogelijk in Delft c. 1884

George Hendrik Breitner sketched "Huizen aan een vaart, mogelijk in Delft" with a pencil, creating a small, intimate portrayal of urban life. The sketch's strength lies in its raw, linear composition and the way Breitner captures the essence of the scene with minimal strokes. The basic shapes of houses, boats and trees are laid out over the page. The lines are raw and immediate, giving the impression of a fleeting moment captured. The composition's structural elements reveal Breitner's interest in portraying the everyday without idealization, which speaks to broader artistic concerns of the time. Breitner's sketch can be seen as a deconstruction of traditional landscape art, focusing on the basic framework of lines and shapes. This formal element challenges viewers to look beyond the surface and consider the underlying structure of the scene and perhaps of representation itself.