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George Hendrik Breitner - Girl in a White Kimono

Girl in a White Kimono (1894)

George Hendrik Breitner (Dutch, 1857-1923)
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License: All public domain files can be freely used for personal and commercial projects.
Why is this image in the public domain?
The Artist died in 1923 so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries where the copyright term is the Artist's life plus 70 years or fewer.
George Hendrik Breitner

George Hendrik Breitner was a Dutch painter and photographer. An important figure in Amsterdam Impressionism, he is noted especially for his paintings of street scenes and harbours in a realistic style. He painted en plein air, and became interested in photography as a means of documenting street life and atmospheric effects – rainy weather in particular – as reference materials for his paintings.

George Hendrik Breitner was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands. From 1876 to 1880 he attended the Art Academy in The Hague where his extraordinary talent was rewarded on various occasions. From October 1878 till April 1879 he worked as an art teacher at the Leiden academy Ars Aemula Naturae. In 1880 he was expelled from the Art Academy of The Hague for misconduct, because he had destroyed the regulations-board. In the same year he lived at landscapist Willem Maris's place at Loosduinen and was accepted as a member of Pulchri Studio, an important artist's society in The Hague. Later, he distanced himself from the Hague School and today he is generally regarded as an Amsterdam Impressionist.

During 1880–1881 he worked at the famous Panorama Mesdag together with Hendrik Mesdag, S. Mesdag-van Houten, Theophile de Bock and Barend Blommers. In 1882 he met and worked together with Vincent van Gogh, with whom he often went sketching in the poorer areas of The Hague. Breitner preferred working-class models: labourers, servant girls and people from the lower class districts. Interest in the lot of the common people, which many artists felt in that period, was nurtured by the social conscience of French writers such as Émile Zola.

He was associated with the Dutch literary group known as the Tachtigers (English translation: "Eighty-ers"). This was a group that championed impressionism and naturalism against romanticism, influencing other painters such as Isaac Israëls, Willem Witsen, and poets like Willem Kloos.

Breitner saw himself as "le peintre du peuple", the people's painter. He was the painter of city views par excellence: wooden foundation piles by the harbour, demolition work and construction sites in the old centre, horse trams on the Dam, or canals in the rain. With his nervous brush strokes, he captured the dynamic street life. By 1890, cameras were affordable, and Breitner had a much better instrument to satisfy his ambitions. He became very interested in capturing movement and illumination in the city, and became a master in doing this. It is not impossible that Breitner's preference for cloudy weather conditions and a greyish and brownish palette resulted from certain limitations of the photographic material.

Breitner also painted female nudes, but just like Rembrandt he was criticized because his nudes were painted too realistically and did not resemble the common ideal of beauty. In his own time Breitner's paintings were admired by artists and art lovers, but often despised by the Dutch art critics for their raw and realistic nature.

By the turn of the century Breitner was a famous painter in the Netherlands, as demonstrated by a highly successful retrospective exhibition at Arti et Amicitiae in Amsterdam (1901). Breitner travelled frequently in the last decades of his life, visiting Paris, London, and Berlin, among other cities, and continued to take photographs. In 1909 he went to the United States as a member of the jury for the Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh.

Breitner had only two pupils, Kees Maks (1876–1967) and Marie Henrie Mackenzie (1878–1961).

He died on 5 June 1923 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

More Artworks by George Hendrik Breitner (View all 94 Artworks)

Work Horses At The Houthaven, Amsterdam

Work Horses At The Houthaven, Amsterdam

George Hendrik Breitner (Dutch, 1857-1923)
Nude

Nude (1885)

George Hendrik Breitner (Dutch, 1857-1923)
Paarden op het strand, op de achtergrond een schuit en vissers

Paarden op het strand, op de achtergrond een schuit en vissers (c. 1867 - c. 1923)

George Hendrik Breitner (Dutch, 1857-1923)
The Rokin, Amsterdam

The Rokin, Amsterdam (1897)

George Hendrik Breitner (Dutch, 1857-1923)
Sleeping girl

Sleeping girl

George Hendrik Breitner (Dutch, 1857-1923)
Cavalry

Cavalry

George Hendrik Breitner (Dutch, 1857-1923)
View in the Hague

View in the Hague (c. 1880 - c. 1923)

George Hendrik Breitner (Dutch, 1857-1923)
Hussars

Hussars (c. 1880 - c. 1890)

George Hendrik Breitner (Dutch, 1857-1923)
Cavalry at Repose

Cavalry at Repose (1880 - 1890)

George Hendrik Breitner (Dutch, 1857-1923)
Hussars on Maneuver

Hussars on Maneuver (c. 1880 - c. 1923)

George Hendrik Breitner (Dutch, 1857-1923)
Reclining nude

Reclining nude (circa 1887)

George Hendrik Breitner (Dutch, 1857-1923)
Lunchtime at the Building Site on the Van Diemenstraat in Amsterdam

Lunchtime at the Building Site on the Van Diemenstraat in Amsterdam (1897)

George Hendrik Breitner (Dutch, 1857-1923)
The Damrak, Amsterdam

The Damrak, Amsterdam (1903)

George Hendrik Breitner (Dutch, 1857-1923)
Cavalry at Repose

Cavalry at Repose (1885)

George Hendrik Breitner (Dutch, 1857-1923)
Ginger Pot wit Anemones

Ginger Pot wit Anemones (c. 1900 - c. 1923)

George Hendrik Breitner (Dutch, 1857-1923)
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