George Hendrik Breitner
Date of birth: 1857.09.12
Place of birth: Rotterdam
Date of death: 1923
Place of death: Aerdenhout 1923
Category: artist
Identity:
George Hendrik Breitner was a painter, printmaker and photographer.
Life:
Breitner studied in The Hague and later in the studio of Willem Maris. Under Maris's influence and that of the Hague school he took to plein-air painting of city and dockside life. From 1886 he worked in Amsterdam where he used photography extensively in his work. As well as Amsterdam he recorded the urban life of London, Paris and Berlin by photography. Some compositions record or echo subjects chosen by Whistler in his prints.
Rich colour, expressive brushwork, and bold, unorthodox compositions characterise his work. His interest in Japonisme and in city life also finds parallels in Whistler's work, in paintings like Girl in a White Kimono (1894, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).
In 1901 he was an honorary member of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers (#02355).
Bibliography:
Bénézit, E., Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, 8 vols, Paris, 1956-61; Boom, M., 'George Hendrik Breitner,' Grove Dictionary of Art Online; Heijbroek, J. F., and Margaret F. MacDonald, Whistler and Holland, Zwolle and Amsterdam, 1997 ; Breitner: Girl in Kimono, Exhibition, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2016 .
