Artwork Page for Construction Site in Amsterdam

Details / Information for Construction Site in Amsterdam

Construction Site in Amsterdam

c. 1902

George Hendrik Breitner

(Dutch, 1857–1923)
Culture
Netherlands
Medium
oil on fabric
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.)
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1985.145
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Description

A leader of the Dutch Impressionists, Breitner based this painting on a series of photographs he took of a construction site in Amsterdam. Although seemingly executed rapidly on site, the painting was in fact carefully composed in the studio. Aided by his own photographs and sketches, Breitner portrayed a city in transition. Like his friend Vincent van Gogh, Breitner admired naturalist literature and was determined to become a “painter of the people.”
A horizontally oriented oil painting depicts a winter construction scene with seven men in dark hats and coats pushing wheelbarrows across a snowy, rutted foreground. Behind them, tall gabled buildings and spindly, bare trees rise against a pale gray sky. Thick, textured brushstrokes in muted tones of white, brown, and gray define the frozen landscape, while several figures move toward the right and others stand toward the left.

Construction Site in Amsterdam

c. 1902

George Hendrik Breitner

(Dutch, 1857–1923)
Netherlands

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