Oct 19, 2007

Construction Site in Amsterdam

Construction Site in Amsterdam

c. 1902

George Hendrik Breitner

(Dutch, 1857–1923)

Oil on fabric

Framed: 80 x 100 x 8.6 cm (31 1/2 x 39 3/8 x 3 3/8 in.); Unframed: 60.5 x 80.7 cm (23 13/16 x 31 3/4 in.)

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1985.145

Location

Description

A leader of the Dutch Impressionists, Breitner based this painting on a series of photographs he took of a construction site in Amsterdam. Although seemingly executed rapidly on site, the painting was in fact carefully composed in the studio. Aided by his own photographs and sketches, Breitner portrayed a city in transition. Like his friend Vincent van Gogh, Breitner admired naturalist literature and was determined to become a “painter of the people.”

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