Interieur van een tram en figuurstudies c. 1903

George Hendrik Breitner made this sketch of a tram interior, and figure studies, using pencil on paper. Here the artist is working fast and intuitively! The pencil marks are jotted down in short, expressive strokes. I can imagine him quickly capturing fleeting moments while riding the tram, focusing on capturing the essence of his subjects rather than precise details. There is an immediacy to these drawings. We see the quickly rendered figures inside the tram car, and the floating heads and hands, maybe studies of passengers he sees every day on his commute. These are impressions of the people around him, caught in the everydayness of life. The artist becomes a kind of collector, gathering fragments of urban life. It reminds me of other sketchbooks, too. Think of Daumier on the Metro in Paris, or Kathe Kollwitz drawing the poor of Berlin. Artists are always responding to one another, riffing on the same themes. It’s a constant exchange! And ultimately, it comes from life, transformed through the artist’s eye, filtered through their hand, leaving us with something rich in feeling.