Gezicht in Amsterdam met een figuur c. 1903

George Hendrik Breitner made this work, *Gezicht in Amsterdam met een figuur*, as a sketch in a notebook. It's almost like seeing the city through his eyes, a collection of light marks on paper, a ghost of a memory, with lines floating and gathering to suggest forms. I imagine Breitner walking the streets of Amsterdam, sketchbook in hand, quickly capturing the essence of what he sees, the barest of gestures marking a figure, a building, the overall atmosphere of the scene. It’s the kind of sketch artists do to keep a thought, a feeling, to collect things that might become something more later. I love to imagine him, stopping for a minute to catch a view. Painters are always inspired by what’s around them, by each other, by the possibilities of painting itself. This sketch is a reminder of the immediacy and intimacy of drawing, the simple act of translating the world onto paper, one line at a time. And it's nice to know it still speaks to us all this time later.