Stadsgezicht met water c. 1903

George Hendrik Breitner made this city view with water as a pencil drawing, and it's now housed at the Rijksmuseum. Look at how Breitner approaches mark making here. It's like he's thinking aloud with his pencil, each line a fleeting thought. The texture of the paper itself becomes part of the story, doesn't it? And the pencil, so immediate, capturing a moment in time with a few strokes. Notice the vertical marks, those lines standing like buildings, and then these soft ovals, maybe trees, maybe the reflection of light on water. It feels like he's trying to capture something that is more than just the thing itself. This reminds me a little of Cy Twombly's drawings, or even some of Philip Guston's more pared-down works. There’s a similar sense of immediacy and of embracing the accidental, the unfinished. Art doesn't always have to be about perfection. Sometimes, it's the sketch, the raw, unedited moment, that speaks the loudest.