Stadsgezicht Possibly 1907 - 1911

George Hendrik Breitner made this charcoal drawing, "Stadsgezicht," sometime in his life, we don't know exactly when. There’s something so alive in the immediacy of these marks. It's like he’s not trying to capture a perfect image, but rather a feeling, a fleeting moment in the city. You can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the page, capturing the essence of the city with each stroke. Look at the density of charcoal in the bottom right corner, how it almost dissolves into the paper, creating a sense of depth and shadow, and then how these marks contrast with the lightness of the left of the image, where the artist has used a series of very light and delicate lines to create the impression of buildings. This drawing reminds me a lot of some of the early cityscapes by Mondrian, though rendered with a more direct, sketch-like quality. It’s like looking at a conversation between two artists across time, each grappling with the challenge of capturing the dynamism of urban life. Art is ambiguity and an ongoing exchange of ideas, right?