Stadsgezicht, mogelijk Amsterdam 1909

George Hendrik Breitner made this sketch of a cityscape, possibly Amsterdam, with graphite on paper, and I can imagine him right there in the thick of it, charcoal dust on his fingers, squinting at the light. Look at these lines, so raw and searching! It's as if he’s trying to capture not just the buildings and the streets, but the very feeling of the city, the ephemeral moment. You can see the rapid strokes, the way the lines dance and intersect, building up a sense of depth and space. It’s like watching him think, right there on the page. I bet Breitner was inspired by the Impressionists, with their focus on capturing fleeting moments and the play of light. The immediacy and directness of this sketch anticipates how other artists, like Cy Twombly, would go on to explore the expressive potential of mark-making. We're all influenced by those who came before us, aren’t we?