Painter George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923) had never made a fool of himself in a CSI series, he observed locations and scenes so closely a hundred years ago. It just had nothing to do with murder:Breitner actually recorded life. On the spot, he made quick sketches and photos to elaborate in his studio. Recent research into these preliminary studies has yielded new discoveries about his work.
The Rijksmuseum has had 117 Breitner sketchbooks in its collection for many decades. Sketches from this were occasionally examined, but systematic and large-scale research had not taken place before.
This changed in 2012 when the Rijksmuseum started digitizing the sketchbooks. Digitally it was a lot easier to go through all the sketches and to compare them with photos of Breitner and with archive material. Erik Schmitz and Bert Gerlach, researchers at the Amsterdam City Archives, made good use of this.
They could use the large collection of sketchbooks in several ways. For example, it turned out that Breitner's more or less fixed walking routes can be found in the sketchbooks. Erik Schmitz:“With his sketchbooks in hand, we can now follow the routes Breitner walked from his home to his studio or his favorite café. He often passed the same places, which he made sketches of, just like the people he saw there. Here and there he also scribbled an address or other kind of note, which helped us determine the location.”
Painter of the street
When Breitner, originally from Rotterdam, moved to Amsterdam in 1886, he first ended up in the new De Pijp district. Schmitz:“He didn't like it at all. New construction had no character according to Breitner. He was more in his element once he moved to the Jordaan. From his window on the Lauriergracht he sketched and photographed the passing folk women, maids and workers. Popular women were also easy to approach on the street. Breitner could ask them if they wanted to earn some extra money by posing. It was unthinkable in those days to ask such a thing of a decent lady.”
Breitner wanted to be a painter of the people, but not out of political conviction. He was a perverse man and generally painted what he wanted and found interesting himself. The painter wanted to touch the spectators with his portrayal of real life, but he did not paint to expose social abuses. He did not make his work and the figures in it more beautiful or uglier than they really were. Breitner could also somewhat afford this obstinacy. During his lifetime he was already an (internationally) known and appreciated artist. In 1901 and 1902 there was a major retrospective of him at Arti et Amicitiae, the artists' association in Amsterdam.
Breitner only painted inside his studio, but for his subjects he roamed a lot outside. We mainly find him in the old, medieval city center. For him, the architecture from this period and the people radiated the true character of Amsterdam. He recorded his observations by means of sketches and black-and-white photographs (Breitner was one of the first to photograph slums and working-class neighborhoods). In his sketchbooks he drew everything he saw and what passed by. Passers-by, horses, canals with boats and streets with facades including useful information such as light and colours.
In addition to roaming the streets, Breitner also regularly observed the selected location from a nearby building. The notes in his sketchbooks show that he could often be found in the cafe. For example, he often watched his favorite Dam from various bars around the square. He thought the buzz there was wonderful. The crowds, the horse trams and the people that moved around like ants are first reflected in his sketchbooks and then in his work.
Heihoo, heihoo
Another fascination for the painter were construction sites, both in the rapidly changing inner city and the urban expansion on the edges in the east, west and south. Breitner only made images of early construction stages and the pile driving:the horses that dragged the piles, the steam-driven pile drivers that drove the piles into the ground, the water vapors that were released and the many workmen in their blue keels. He captured these kinds of scenarios in dark tones and earthy colors and preferably with drizzly weather. He showed the raw edges of the workplace and adapted them if necessary according to his insights. Once the brickwork started, Breitner lost interest and moved on to the next spot. The style of the newly built buildings did not appeal to him.
Until now, it was unknown where Breitner had acquired his knowledge of photography, because the painter did not openly advertise it. On the basis of an exchange of letters with his student Christina Vermeulen, the researchers found out that Breitner had learned a lot about photography in Paris. Christina asked him for advice about Parisian photography shops and he answered in four pages where she could buy the best cameras and films.
Breitner himself had been in Paris in 1884 and apparently there he had snooped around and gained a lot of knowledge. This student was not a major talent that would go far, yet he was eager to share his findings with her in detail. No secrecy here.
Breitner wrote more, but most of the letters deal with business matters. His personal opinion was much less discussed. The painter was a closed person and his studio was also off limits to outsiders, except for a few.
Schmitz:“Breitner had a hard time with the changing appearance of Amsterdam. As a horse lover, he also didn't like the electric tram that was introduced after 1900. He called them soulless boxes.” Many of the horses that pulled the earlier horse trams were sold. In the 19 e century, the horse was not yet a specific rural animal:horses were everywhere in the city. They pulled trams, transported products on carts and people in carriages and were used in work such as on the construction site.
With the arrival of the electric trams and later the cars (especially after the First World War), the horse more and more disappeared from the cityscape. This to Breitner's chagrin. He recorded many tram horses and even knew several of them by name, according to the notes in the sketchbooks. The researchers found the horse names scribbled on by Breitner in the archives of the tram company.
Who knows where and when?
The extensive research into the sketchbooks, photographs and archive material was helpful in locating and dating Breitner's work. He did not do the latter himself and the name of a painting does not always provide clarity about the location. Using his sketchbooks with notes and his detailed photographs, the researchers have been able to add new locations to the artist's oeuvre.
A good example is The Waspit. Based on an exact sketch of a Jordanian washerwoman, the researchers believe that Breitner drew her from his home on Lauriersgracht. He lived here from 1893 to 1899. Breitner later used the sketch from circa 1895 for his painting The Waspit, which now hangs in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. The painting was previously dated around 1893, but from the sketchbooks we now know that the painting was made around 1897.
A painting of an unknown building site has also been assigned its location as a result of this research:the extension of the old town hall on Sint Agnietenstraat in 1903. The sketchbooks showed exactly the same facades as the painting, except that the street name was scribbled next to the sketch. The photos from the same point of view could also be localized with this.
Breitner's photos show how thorough and detailed he worked in the preliminary study of a work of art:they were an important addition to him. With the help of photography, he was able to study every detail at home and get information about the terrain. This is nicely reflected in the preliminary study of the painting De Zandhoek from 1903. He even enlarged the photo of this quay and provided it with a grid (squaring) to help with the proportions.
Brushing away modernities
Breitner painted 'from life', but you cannot believe everything you see in his work. Of course it remains an artist with its own interpretation. Although it sometimes seems as if he literally copied his sketches and photos, as in the photo of the Zandhoek, Breitner left out in the final work what he did not like in the composition. Or he replaced it with something he thought would fit better. The research shows that Breitner has also interpreted a construction site on the Nieuwendijk more freely than you might think.
Schmitz:“The open space that was created in 1903 after demolition work offers a view of a facade with a flat roof that was modern for that time. This facade from 1898 can be found in his photos of the construction site. However, he painted a neck gable on the painting of the construction site in question. The house at 20 Nieuwe Nieuwstraat served as a model for this, Breitner's photos showed.”
Breitner in Amsterdam – exhibition and book
The research results are until February 1, 2015 on display in the Breitner in Amsterdam exhibition, in the Amsterdam City Archives. In addition to sketchbooks, prints and paintings, letters and objects written and used by Breitner are also on display. The City Archives not only shows well-known paintings and watercolors by the painter:a third of the exhibition consists of material that has not or hardly been shown before.
On display are works from the collections of the City Archives, the Rijksmuseum, the Gemeentemuseum The Hague, the Teylers Museum, Museum Kröller-Müller and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. They are supplemented by special loans from private collections.
Thursday 23 October The Amsterdam Academic Club organizes two lectures by the authors about Breitner in Amsterdam from 5 pm .
Read more:
You can read more about this exhibition and the research behind it in:J.F. Heijbroek, Erik Schmitz, George Hendrik Breitner in Amsterdam (Publisher THOTH Amsterdam, 2014)