Figuren langs het water 1893

George Hendrik Breitner made this sketch, Figuren langs het water, with graphite on paper. The artist rapidly captured a waterside scene; the immediacy of the graphite on paper, a ready-to-hand medium, conveys the speed and the casual nature of the lines, as if he dashed this off in a matter of moments. Looking closely, we see the texture of the paper itself, and the different ways Breitner has worked the material into its surface. In this process, the artist made choices about what to include and exclude, resulting in varied densities, the figures on the left are bold, while those to the right are barely visible. The materiality, here, is less about the inherent qualities of graphite, and more about the artist’s active engagement with the medium, capturing the fleeting activity on the canal. The paper and graphite give us a glimpse into Breitner’s working method, elevating it from a mere preparatory sketch to a work of art in its own right.