Winter (Girls in the Snow)

Together with Vincent van Gogh, George Hendrik Breitner was one of the most unusual and innovative Dutch painters of the end of the nineteenth century. A recurring theme in his work is Amsterdam in the evening, mist or rain, and is usually depicted in sombre tones of ochre, brown and grey. He preferred to paint working-class figures, labourers at work or people walking in the street. His loose, sketchy style of painting appears to be intuitive and is often restless and almost aggressive. Breitner was one of the first artists to work with the aid of photography. Consequently, this often gave the impression, as in this winter scene, that his compositions are based on random snapshots.