Annotaties 1896 - 1901

This page of annotations comes to us from the Dutch artist George Hendrik Breitner, who lived from 1857 to 1923. Breitner was working during a time when the art world was being shaken up by new ways of seeing and representing the world. These notes give us a peek into Breitner's personal thoughts. The combination of plant names and what appears to be accounting suggests a nexus of nature, personal interests and commerce. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when Breitner was active, class distinctions were often sharply defined. Leisure activities like gardening might have been more accessible to the middle and upper classes, reflecting certain social privileges. What do these intimate notes tell us about the artist? Does it reveal a dialogue between the personal and the social, a negotiation between individual interests and broader societal structures? This piece encourages us to think about the contexts that shape both the creation and our understanding of art.