id: 152265 accession number: 1985.145 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1985.145 updated: 2024-03-26 01:59:54.855000 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1985.145 title: Construction Site in Amsterdam title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1902 creation date earliest: 1897 creation date latest: 1907 current location: creditline: Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund copyright: --- culture: Netherlands technique: oil on fabric department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * George Hendrik Breitner (Dutch, 1857–1923) - artist History painter Charles Rochussen (1814-1894) advised George Hendrik Breitner to attend the academy in The Hague, which he did in 1876. Not impressed with the training methods there, which mainly involved copying plaster models, he was expelled for unruly behavior in 1880. He made contacts with members of The Hague school of painters, such as Israels (q.v.), Willem Maris (1844-1910), Anton Mauve (1838-1888), and Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831-1915), who painted plein-air landscapes in the tradition of the Barbizon painters, investigating the atmospheric qualities of the landscape. Mesdag asked Breitner in 1880 to assist him on his famous panorama of Scheveningen (Museum Panorama Mesdag, The Hague). Although these modern artists exposed him to many new influences, Breitner preferred to focus on human figures rather than pure landscape. In the spirit of naturalist authors such as Gustave Flaubert and Émile Zola, he wanted to be a "painter of the people." He also favored military painting, which he had been practicing since his youth. The merchant C. E. van Stolk, Breitner's early supporter and his father's employer, unsuccessfully urged the young painter to change his loose impressionist style in order to have a better chance of success. In May 1884 the artist left for Paris and briefly entered the studio of the academic painter Fernand Cormon (1854-1924). Breitner complained about his own lack of technical skills and, probably because of financial problems, left Paris within half a year. In 1886 he moved to Amsterdam and eventually became the main chronicler of street life in the city. His reputation was established that same year when the state bought his painting Horse Artillery for the new Rijksmuseum. He became one of the leading figures of Amsterdam's strongly developed avant-garde intellectual scene. A group of painters and writers called De Tachtigers (The Eighties Movement) used their publication De Nieuwe Gids (The New Guide) to voice their ideas against the establishment. In addition to his contemporary genre painting, Breitner often returned to the female nude; these works, however, met with some criticism because of the artist's realistic approach. Breitner photographed frequently and used the images for his paintings, both nudes and cityscapes. In 1901 he married his model Marie Jordan (1866-1948). By the turn of the century Breitner was a famous artist in the Netherlands, as demonstrated by a highly successful retrospective exhibition at Arti et Amicitiae in Amsterdam (1901). That accomplishment also meant, however, that he now belonged to the cultural establishment while other artists, such as Piet Mondriaan (1872-1944), or new movements, such as cubism and expressionism, were waiting in the wings. Breitner traveled frequently in the last decades of his life, visiting Paris, London, and Berlin, among other cities, and continued to take photographs. In 1909 he went to the United States as a member of the jury for the Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh, where the Cleveland painting had been exhibited in 1904. --- measurements: 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.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed bottom left corner: G. H. Breitner translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Year in Review for 1985 opening date: 1986-02-12T05:00:00 The Year in Review for 1985. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 12-April 20, 1986). title: Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2006-05-27T00:00:00 Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Beijing World Art Museum, China (May 26-August 27, 2006); Mori Art Center (September 16-November 26, 2006); Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007); Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (June 9-September 16, 2007); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 15-June 1, 2008); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (June 22-September 21, 2008); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 12, 2008-January 18, 2009). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute. Ninth Annual Exhibition (1904), no. 34, Making a New Street in Amsterdam (repr.).', 'opening_date': '1904-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Possibly The Hague, Pulchri Studio. Derde tentoonstelling van schilderijen enz. Gehouden door E. J. Van Wisselingh & Co. (1905), no. 32, Bouwerij [Building Activity].', 'opening_date': '1905-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Amsterdam, Arti et Amicitiae. Tentoonstelling van Kunstwerken vervaardigd door leden der Maatschappij (1906), no. 23, Bouwerij.', 'opening_date': '1906-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Amsterdam, E. J. van Wisselingh & Co. Catalogus der tentoonstelling van Schilderijen en Aquarellen door G. H. Breitner (1916), no. 17, Bouwerij; Winter, S (painting) 59 x 78 cm, 1902.', 'opening_date': '1916-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Possibly Rotterdam, Kunstzalen Unger en Van Mens. Tentoonstelling van werken van G. H. Breitner (1918), no. 2, Doorbraak Raadhuisstraat, Eigendom (property), not repr.', 'opening_date': '1918-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'London, Royal Academy. Exhibition of Dutch Art (1929), no. 383, Rebuilding at Amsterdam, lent by M. P. Voûte, canvas, 58 x 78 cm.', 'opening_date': '1929-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA (organizer). Beijing World Art Museum, China, May 26 - Aug. 27, 2006; Mori Arts Center, Tokyo, Japan: Sept. 9 - Nov. 26, 2006; Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea: Dec. 18, 2006 - March 31, 2007; Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea: Apr. 7 - May 20, 2007; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: June 9 - Sept. 16, 2007; Cleveland Museum of Art, Oct. 21, 2007- January 13, 2008; Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN, Feb. 21-June 1, 2008; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT, June 22 - September 21, 2008; and the Detroit Institute of Arts, MI, October 12, 2008 - January 18, 2009: "Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art"', 'opening_date': '2006-05-26T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE E. J. van Wisselingh & Co., Amsterdam in 1902. Sold to A. Prins, Amsterdam/Hamburg, 31 May 1902, for Dfl 2.000. (Arij Prins [1860-1922] was a Dutch man of letters and a close friend of Breitner with whom he corresponded, and who lived in Hamburg from 1885 to 1905. Breitner's account book, which is in the Breitner Archive at the rkd in The Hague, lists the name of Arij Prins as the purchaser of the painting for Fl. 2.000. There is also a list of his works sold through the dealer van Wisselingh; there W. Prins, Hamburg, is mentioned as the purchaser of this work. W. is most likely a brother of Arij.) A. Terwindt. M. P. Voûte, Amsterdam, by 1922. Dr. W. L. Ladenius, Haarlem. Amsterdam sale, F. Muller & Co., 15-22 December 1942 (lot 129), Doorbraak Raadhuisstraat in den Winter, signed, canvas, 60.5 x 81 cm, repr., for Dfl 2.200. Amsterdam sale, Sotheby Mak van Waay, 15 May 1984 (lot 175), repr., for Dfl 47.560, to E. J. van Wisselingh & Co., Amsterdam. Purchased by the CMA in 1985. date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Turner, Evan H. "Year in Review for 1985." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LXXIII, no. 2 (February, 1986): 27-71. page number: Reproduced: p. 55, fig. 81; Mentioned: p.65, no. 81 url: Bergsma,Rieta, Paul Hefting, and Jan Frederik Heijbroek. George Hendrik Breitner, 1857-1923: schilderijen, tekeningen, foto's. Bussum, Netherlands: Thoth, 1994. page number: url: Robinson, William. "George Hendrik Breitner and the Emergence of Dutch Modernism." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LXXXI, no.2 (February, 1994): 27-43. page number: Reproduced: cover url: Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 90-94, Vol. I, no. 34 url: Heijbroek, J.F., and Erik Schmitz. George Hendrik Breitner in Amsterdam. Bussum, Netherlands : Uitgeverij Thoth, 2014. page number: url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1985.145/1985.145_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1985.145/1985.145_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1985.145/1985.145_full.tif