George Hendrik Breitner

Member of the Dutch artist group known as 'De Tachtigers'('The Eighties') because of their artistic influence in the years of 1880, including painters like Isaac Israëls[?], Willem Witsen, and poets like Willem Kloos[?].

Became criticized after his famous saying: "Van Gogh makes art for eskimo's"

Entered Amsterdam in 1886 after he was expelled from the Art Academy of The Hague, because of "radical behaviour". After this event he was 'discovered' by Willem Mesdag[?], for Breitner showed to have a talent for painting horses. Mesdag needed Breitner to paint the artillery and the horses in his famous Panorama.

Where Van Gogh was determined to illustrate an expressionistic perception of his own reality, with the aid of sharp color contrasts, Breitner on the other hand, was concerned to capture nothing else than the pure reality of his environment. Van Gogh left to france, Breiter stayed in Amsterdam because this was his ideal working place.

He began to paint scenes and city-views in the slums of Amsterdam, like the jordaan, and the Rokin. With his very quick strokes, he wanted to capture the city workers, children, little dogs, housewives, dockworkers and so on, as long as his paintings resembled reality. And this reality was gray, rainy and sometimes a little miserable. He also painted nudes, but Breitner was a grim man, so where nudes of other painters were beautiful, sensual and erotic, Breitners nudes were grim, grumpy and not sensual at all. During the end of 1880, begin 1890, photocamera's where affordable, and now 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.

Where Van Gogh became the re-inventor of color, Breitner became the re-inventor of movement. Because Breitner caused a small revolution of art in his own small country, he was, compared to Van Gogh, a very unknown painter abroad.

Breitners paintings are because of what he saw, not about what he thought. Nowadays his expositions draw great crowds, ironically, most of his admirers are photographers.

Breitner has also the honours of being one of the few dutch painters who is being referred to in a dutch saying in Amsterdam: when the streets of Amsterdam are gray and rainy, people of Amsterdam whisper grimly "Echt Breitnerweer" (Typical Breitnerweather).

Hugo