George Hendrik Breitner: Working Class Neighborhoods

George Hendrik Breitner - Bridge over the Singel near Paleisstraat in Amsterdam - c. 1897 - Oil on canvas, 100 x 152 cm - Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (click photo for larger image)George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923)  was a Dutch painter and photographer. He trained as a painter and draughtsman at the academy in The Hague from 1875 to 1877. In the early 1880s, he and Vincent van Gogh painted the residents of the working class neighborhoods of The Hague and in the province of Drenthe. Both artists recorded the vitality of city life in their sketchbooks. Breitner consciously chose these themes and motifs: he wanted to paint people going about their daily lives, and on his trips through the towns and docks he was constantly in search of motifs and impressions that he could use in his paintings. The painting featured here depicts a cold dark day in Amsterdam in winter. The setting is the bridge, covered by snow over the Singel in Amsterdam.