Gezicht in Haarlem met de toren van de Sint-Bavokerk c. 1903

George Hendrik Breitner dashed off this drawing of Haarlem and the Sint-Bavokerk tower, probably en plein air. I imagine him with his sketchbook, the tip of his pen hovering as he’s deciding which lines to commit to the page. The building emerges from the cream paper, with the bare minimum needed to render the scene—a few strokes to get the roof, a few more for the windows. You can almost see him squinting, trying to capture the essence of Haarlem in a few confident lines. He really knows how to get a likeness with only a few lines. It makes me think about how much information we actually need to understand something, and how much can be left unsaid. You know, it’s like a conversation between artists, or a little love note passed between friends.