Bomen langs een pad c. 1902 - 1914

George Hendrik Breitner made this drawing, Bomen langs een pad, with graphite on paper. You can see Breitner’s searching lines, almost like he’s mapping the scene with the tip of his pencil. It makes me think of the drawings Guston did later in his career. Look at the tree on the left, how it seems to be growing right in front of us, with such immediacy. The path on the right is full of quick, short strokes. He’s thinking out loud here. I can imagine Breitner outside, bundled up maybe, quickly trying to capture the movement of light and shadow, the way the trees reach up and out. He probably had a clear sense of what he wanted to express, but the drawing itself seems to be a journey of discovery. It's a conversation between the artist, the subject, and the medium. Artists are always talking to each other like that, across time and space. They are always inspiring each other. And for us, the viewers, we get to listen in on that conversation, adding our own thoughts and feelings to the mix.