Vrouw en kind c. 1902

George Hendrik Breitner made this drawing of a woman and child sometime in the late 19th, early 20th century with graphite on paper. Breitner is all about capturing fleeting moments, and you can see it in the hasty marks he makes here. There's a real sense of immediacy, like he’s trying to capture the essence of the scene before it disappears. The marks are kind of raw and unrefined, like he’s not trying to create a perfect image, but just to capture the feeling of the moment. Look at the way he renders the figures with these quick, sketchy lines. The lines create a sense of movement, and you can almost feel the energy of the scene. It reminds me a bit of Degas's sketches of dancers. Both artists were interested in capturing the fleeting moments of modern life, and they both used a similar approach to mark-making to achieve that effect. Ultimately, art is an open conversation, where no one has the last word.