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George Hendrik Breitner | |
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Born | George Hendrik Breitner 12 September 1857 Rotterdam, Netherlands |
Died | 5 June 1923 65) Amsterdam, Netherlands | (aged
Movement | Tachtigers |
George Hendrik Breitner (12 September 1857 – 5 June 1923) 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. [1] 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.
In 1886, he entered the Rijksakademie of Amsterdam, but soon it became clear that Breitner was far beyond the level of education offered there.
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.
Although Breitner exhibited abroad early on, his fame never crossed the borders of the Netherlands. At the time foreign interest was more for anecdotal and picturesque works; the typical "Dutchness" of the Hague School. As time went by critics lost interest in Breitner. The younger generation regarded impressionism as too superficial. They aspired to a more elevated and spiritual form of art, but Breitner did not allow himself to be influenced by these new artistic trends. Around 1905–1910 pointillism as practised by Jan Sluyters, Piet Mondrian and Leo Gestel was flourishing. Between 1911 and 1914 all the latest art movements arrived in the Netherlands one after another including cubism, futurism and expressionism. Breitner's role as contemporary historical painter was finished.
Breitner had only two pupils, Kees Maks (1876–1967) and Marie Henrie Mackenzie (1878–1961).
He died on 5 June 1923 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
In the early months of 1882, Breitner came into contact with Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh appears to have been introduced to him by his brother Theo, and the pair sketched together in the working-class districts of The Hague. Breitner was motivated to do so because he regarded himself as a painter of the common folk. Van Gogh, initially at any rate, was more intent on recruiting models. [5] It is likely that Breitner introduced van Gogh to the novels of Émile Zola and the cause of social realism.
Breitner was hospitalised in April. Van Gogh visited him in hospital, but Breitner did not return the visits when van Gogh himself was hospitalised two months later, and they did not meet again until the following July when van Gogh was on the verge of leaving The Hague and Breitner spending more time in Rotterdam than the Hague. At that time van Gogh gave Theo a less than flattering account of Breitner's paintings as resembling mouldy wallpaper, although he did say he thought he would be all right in the end. [6] For his part, there is no evidence that Breitner saw anything notable in van Gogh's work. He later reminisced that sketching with van Gogh was problematic because, whereas Breitner sketched discreetly in a notebook, van Gogh came laden with apparatus and attracted hostile attention. [7]
Two years after van Gogh's death, Breitner wrote that he did not like van Gogh's paintings: "I can’t help it, but to me it seems like art for Eskimos, I cannot enjoy it. I honestly find it coarse and distasteful, without any distinction, and what’s more, he has stolen it all from Millet and others." [8]
Breitner introduced a social realism to the Netherlands that created shock waves similar to that of Courbet and Manet's in France. In his early years, the corn merchant A.P. van Stolk, who was interested in art, played an influential role. He financially supported the young painter from 1877 to 1883, but his conservative taste clashed with Breitner's particular style.
The discovery in 1996 of a large collection of photographic prints and negatives made clear that Breitner was also a talented photographer of street life in the city. Sometimes he made various pictures of the same subject, from different perspectives or in different weather conditions. Photos sometimes formed the immediate example for a particular painting, for instance the girls in kimono. On other occasions, Breitner used photography for general reference, to capture an atmosphere, a light effect or the weather in the city at a particular moment. In 2021, a photograph by Breitner (Hangboogstraat 23 in Amsterdam) was included in the Netherlands Photo Museum's permanent exhibition Gallery of Honour of Dutch Photography, consisting of 99 photographs. [9]
Breitner is remembered in a Dutch figure of speech: when the streets are grey and rainy, people of Amsterdam whisper grimly "Echt Breitnerweer" (Typical Breitnerweather).
Girl in a Red Kimono realized €582,450 at a Christie's Amsterdam sale in October 2003. The purchaser was Robert Noortman. [10] [11] The model for the painting was Geesje Kwak, the subject of a series of seven paintings and studies by Breitner of a girl dressed in a red or white kimono lying on a bed or standing before a mirror. The painting is considered a high point of Dutch Japonisme .
In April 2005, Rokin with the Nieuwezijdskapel, Amsterdam realized €415,200 at Christie's, Amsterdam. [12]
Gezicht op Keizersgracht hoek Reguliersgracht (An Elegant Lady Strolling Along a Canal in Amsterdam) realized €760,250 at an October 2007 Christie's Amsterdam sale. The scene is a noted beauty spot in Amsterdam and the palette rather brighter than Breitner's norm, although still muted by comparison with his French counterparts. [13]
Breitner Academie (2016–present). From 2016, the Amsterdam Academy of Fine Arts is housed at Overhoeksplein 1-2, next to the EYE Film Institute film museum and Tolhuistuin. The academy was renamed the Breitner Academie, named after the Amsterdam artist George Hendrik Breitner.
Hendrik Willem Mesdag was a Dutch marine painter.
The Hague School is a group of artists who lived and worked in The Hague between 1860 and 1890. Their work was heavily influenced by the realist painters of the French Barbizon school. The painters of the Hague school generally made use of relatively somber colors, which is why the Hague School is sometimes called the Gray School.
Isaac Lazarus Israëls was a Dutch painter associated with the Amsterdam Impressionism movement.
Amsterdam Impressionism was an art movement in late 19th-century Holland. It is associated especially with George Hendrik Breitner and is also known as the School of Allebé.
Dutch art describes the history of visual arts in the Netherlands, after the United Provinces separated from Flanders. Earlier painting in the area is covered in Early Netherlandish painting and Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting.
Willem Roelofs was a Dutch painter, water-colourist, etcher, lithographer and draughtsman. Roelofs was one of the forerunners of the Dutch Revival art, after the Romantic Classicism of the beginning of the 19th century, which led to the formation of The Hague school. His landscapes, especially the early ones with their dominating cloudy skies, demure bodies of water and populated with cattle, are typical for the School of Barbizon.
Théophile Emile Achille de Bock was a Dutch painter belonging to the Hague School. Although many denigrate De Bock's work as too gray and too sketchy, Hague School champions love his work. Even Van Gogh was convinced of De Bocks "artistic temperament", although he eventually found his choice of subject too limited and tried to get De Bock to paint figure studies. But De Bock stuck to the subject he was good at, the Dutch landscapes.
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Hendrik (Hendrikus) van de Sande Bakhuyzen was a Dutch landscape painter and art teacher. He was a prominent contributor to the Romantic period in Dutch art and his students and children founded the art movement known as the Hague School. Like his contemporaries Edward Williams, Jacob Maris, and Jozef Israëls, he was part of a family of prominent painters, including son Julius van de Sande Bakhuyzen, daughter Gerardina Jacoba van de Sande Bakhuyzen, and nephew Alexander Hieronymus Bakhuyzen.
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August Allebé was an artist and teacher from the Northern Netherlands. His early paintings were in a romantic style, but in his later work he was an exponent of realism and impressionism. He was a major initiator and promoter of Amsterdam Impressionism, the artist's association St. Lucas, and the movement of the Amsterdamse Joffers. Amsterdam Impressionism – sometimes referred to by art historians as the School of Allebé – was the counterflow to the very strong Hague School in the movement of Dutch Impressionism. As a professor at the Royal Academy of Amsterdam he fostered a cosmopolitan attitude toward art and the promotion and motivation of his students, and provided a significant stimulus to developments in modern art.
Meadows near Rijswijk and the Schenkweg is a watercolor by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh that he made in January 1882, shortly after taking up residence in The Hague.
Girl in a White Kimono is an 1894 oil painting by George Hendrik Breitner. The subject of the painting is the sixteen-year-old Geesje Kwak, of whom Breitner made a series of photographs and paintings wearing red and white kimono. The painting was inspired by the style of Japanese prints and is an example of Japonisme. The painting is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Jan Hillebrand Wijsmuller was a Dutch painter. He belongs to The 2. Golden Age of Dutch Painting.
Willink van Collenprijs is a former Dutch art award, which was awarded for the first time in 1880 by the Sociëteit Arti et Amicitiae. It was intended as an encouragement award for young artists, and was considered as a national counterpart to the Paris Salon. Its existence of more than 71 years proves the success of Amsterdam's art policy. For many of its winners, it was a valuable boost to their careers in the Dutch art world. Some of the prize winners were also recognized abroad and remain well known today.
Ippy and Gertie Posing at Fashion House Hirsch, Amsterdam is a circa 1916 oil on canvas painting by the Dutch artist Isaac Israëls. It depicts the twin sisters Helena (1895-1964) and Geertruida Wehmann (1895-1975), models at the Amsterdam fashion house Hirsch & Cie in the Leidseplein whose professional names were Ippy and Gertie respectively.
Arnold Hendrik Koning (1860-1945) was a Dutch painter. He painted in the style of the Hague School.
Geesje Kwak was a model of the painter and photographer George Breitner. She became known for the series of seven paintings that Breitner made of her in 1893 and 1894 as the girl in a red and white kimono lying on a sofa and standing in front of a mirror in an oriental interior.
... we often draw types together in the soup kitchen ... He has the studio that Apol used to have at Siebenhaar's.
From a distance they're areas of faded colour as on bleached and rotting and mouldering wallpaper ...