Sloterdijkbrug te Amsterdam, gezien vanaf de Nieuwe Teertuinen c. 1903

George Hendrik Breitner made this drawing, Sloterdijkbrug te Amsterdam, gezien vanaf de Nieuwe Teertuinen, with pencil. It's all about the bones of the thing. I love how he's just feeling out the space with these lines, like he's mapping a world he can only half-see. Look at the way the bridge arches, just barely suggested, but you get the weight of it, right? Then there are these clusters of vertical lines on the right, they remind me of a bundle of raw energy. It’s a sketch, but you feel the physicality of the place. It puts me in mind of Morandi and his still life paintings, finding endless variation in a very limited set of forms. Breitner's drawing reminds us that art is always provisional, always a process, an ongoing conversation with the world.