拍品專文
In 1886 Breitner moved to Amsterdam to stay.
Between 1886 and 1900 his most important works came to excistence. Most of his nudes he painted between 1885 and 1895.
A photograph recorded at the Gemeente Archief, The Hague, taken at the occasion of the opening of the exhibition room of Pulchri Studio, identifies the present lot literally as the centre piece of the same exhibition in 1888.
It was the occasion on which Breitner, for the first time, exhibited a series of three monumental nudes. In its central position the present lot was flanked on the left by Studie naar het naakt, now in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and on the right a painting that probably got lost due to a fire in the studio of Jessurun de Mesquita.
The second time the nude series were exhibited in Amsterdam, 1891, a fourth canvas was added (Liggend naakt, now in the Centraal Museum Utrecht), and attracted much attention.
The general opinion was that they were immoral and obscene, as one wasn't used to this realistic approach of the subject: Breitner's profane nudes were far from classic beauties.
Breitner's contemporary critics Jan Veth and R.N. Roland Holst stood out for him and recognized in Breitner the leading painter of the younger generation of painters.
The Studie naar het naakt in the Stedelijk Museum is annotated "Schets" (study) which seems an odd description, especially in relation to the other works from the nude series, that are equally sketchy, but of a similar undisputed maturity. This annotation however may perhaps be interpretated as an indication of Breitner's general feeling of insecurity towards the quality of some of his paintings.
The large and coarse brush strokes, his extremely sketchy approach, and his limited use of colours are characteristic qualities for his painting the late eighties, and seem all the more applicable to the present lot.
In the present lot Breitner had used the shaping quality of the light; the head disappeares in a sharp shadow and the right background excists in shadow too. The subject is as it were `out of focus', and the few various textures merely reflect light in fields of colour, in such a way that it gives the composition almost an abstract quality.
It is assumed that the start of Breitner's career as a gifted photographer coincided with the coming about of the nude series circa 1887.
The study of the contrasts of light and shadow, revealed in the present lot, may well regarded as an example for his later photographic oeuvre.
Progressive contemporary critics emphasized the bold brushwork Breitner displayed in his daring and militant subjects.
Apart from that they were right to regard Breitner as the most radical modernist of his age, when compared to his contemporary Amsterdam Impressionists.
See colour illustration
Between 1886 and 1900 his most important works came to excistence. Most of his nudes he painted between 1885 and 1895.
A photograph recorded at the Gemeente Archief, The Hague, taken at the occasion of the opening of the exhibition room of Pulchri Studio, identifies the present lot literally as the centre piece of the same exhibition in 1888.
It was the occasion on which Breitner, for the first time, exhibited a series of three monumental nudes. In its central position the present lot was flanked on the left by Studie naar het naakt, now in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and on the right a painting that probably got lost due to a fire in the studio of Jessurun de Mesquita.
The second time the nude series were exhibited in Amsterdam, 1891, a fourth canvas was added (Liggend naakt, now in the Centraal Museum Utrecht), and attracted much attention.
The general opinion was that they were immoral and obscene, as one wasn't used to this realistic approach of the subject: Breitner's profane nudes were far from classic beauties.
Breitner's contemporary critics Jan Veth and R.N. Roland Holst stood out for him and recognized in Breitner the leading painter of the younger generation of painters.
The Studie naar het naakt in the Stedelijk Museum is annotated "Schets" (study) which seems an odd description, especially in relation to the other works from the nude series, that are equally sketchy, but of a similar undisputed maturity. This annotation however may perhaps be interpretated as an indication of Breitner's general feeling of insecurity towards the quality of some of his paintings.
The large and coarse brush strokes, his extremely sketchy approach, and his limited use of colours are characteristic qualities for his painting the late eighties, and seem all the more applicable to the present lot.
In the present lot Breitner had used the shaping quality of the light; the head disappeares in a sharp shadow and the right background excists in shadow too. The subject is as it were `out of focus', and the few various textures merely reflect light in fields of colour, in such a way that it gives the composition almost an abstract quality.
It is assumed that the start of Breitner's career as a gifted photographer coincided with the coming about of the nude series circa 1887.
The study of the contrasts of light and shadow, revealed in the present lot, may well regarded as an example for his later photographic oeuvre.
Progressive contemporary critics emphasized the bold brushwork Breitner displayed in his daring and militant subjects.
Apart from that they were right to regard Breitner as the most radical modernist of his age, when compared to his contemporary Amsterdam Impressionists.
See colour illustration