Landschap c. 1915 - 1916

George Hendrik Breitner made this landscape with pencil on paper. What I love about this work is how Breitner captures a scene with such an economy of means. You can almost see the artist, standing there, quickly sketching, trying to get something down before the light changes. Look at the scribbled lines and shorthand marks – they feel so urgent and immediate. There is an energy in the work; I can almost imagine him thinking as he goes, making it up as he goes along, and I think "Yeah, me too!" I bet he's thinking about how to record what he sees in a way that feels true to his own experience. Like any artist, Breitner is in dialogue with the long history of landscape painting, but he is also trying to find his own unique voice. It’s a reminder that art is about process and discovery, as much as it is about the end result.