George Hendrik Breitner

George Hendrik Breitner was a Dutch painter who captured the gritty energy of modern Amsterdam. Born in Rotterdam in 1857, he set himself against pretty, idealized art and instead painted the working city, its canals, muddy building sites, laborers, and horses hauling loads through the streets. He wanted to be, in his own words, a painter of the people.

He was also a pioneering photographer, using his camera to capture fleeting street scenes that fed into his loose, atmospheric paintings. His images of Amsterdam in rain and grey light have a raw, immediate feeling. Breitner is regarded as one of the leading Dutch painters of city life at the turn of the twentieth century.