Gevels c. 1900 - 1923

George Hendrik Breitner made this drawing, Gevels, with graphite on paper. It’s like a quick note, a fleeting thought captured in a web of lines. I can almost see Breitner with his sketchbook, quickly jotting down the buildings. The artist is pulling just enough information to give you the gist of it. It’s kind of beautiful when you can see the artist making decisions about what to leave out. It's all about suggestion rather than description. That squiggly line implies a whole history of the building, all the different things that happened there. Drawing allows for this kind of spontaneous mark making, something that maybe painting doesn’t do so easily. It’s like a form of embodied thinking where the hand moves and the mind follows, each informing the other in a continuous loop of creation. Artists are always borrowing and riffing off each other, so who knows where Breitner got his inspiration, and who he might have inspired?