George Hendrik Breitner Dutch, 1857-1923

Within the group of Amsterdam Impressionists, Breitner was the only painter to develop a serious interest in the depiction of the female nude. From the early 1880’s onwards, he painted a number of nudes that remain unique to Dutch art. Breitner’s expressive and non-idealised depiction of the female nude meant an outright attack on the academic, classical standards. Whereas some contemporaries considered Breitner’s nudes a severe danger to public morality, the younger generation of progressive writers and painters associated with De Nieuwe Gids praised his nudes as highlights of Amsterdam Impressionism.  The painter and art critic Jan Veth, seeing four large nudes at an exhibition in Arti, exclaimed in sheer admiration: ‘What a painter ! What a daring and skill, as no one before possessed. Manet with his bold, frank vision has, in my opinion, never painted like this. Breitner is completely free of pedantry, doesn’t show off with easy tricks, he is never deliberate in his art. He paints, self-evidently, with a pure inborn royal power’ (De Amsterdammer, 8/9 February 1891). What appealed most to these progressive critics was Breitner’s daring impressionist style, sometimes crossing the border of unfinishedness. In that sense, Breitner’s highly personal, direct style of painting visualised the quest for the individual expression of individual emotions. It was also perfectly in tune with the naturalism of Zola and Edmond and Jules de Goncourt.

The present lot is an impressive example of the female nudes Breitner painted in the late 1880’s and early 1890’s. For some of these large nudes the artist’s wife Marie Jordan modelled. Most of the circa twelve nudes Breitner painted are preserved in public collections (such as the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and Centraal Museum in Utrecht). Only very few stayed in private hands, of which the present lot is definitely one of the finest. It shows to full extent the power of the artist’s masterful brushwork. The subtle decorative patterns in the background allude to the then popular Japonisme, influences that are more explicit in Breitner’s famous series of Kimono girls, which he painted in the early 90’s.

The present lot always remained in private hands and has been on loan to the Singer Museum in Laren for the last 30 years.