Gezicht op de Brouwersgracht te Amsterdam ter hoogte van de Lindengracht 1893 - 1899

George Hendrik Breitner made this sketch of the Brouwersgracht in Amsterdam with pencil on paper. Breitner belonged to a generation of artists at the end of the nineteenth century who took as their subject the depiction of everyday life. What you see here is very informal, a double-page sketch taken directly from life in the streets of Amsterdam. The artist captured a fleeting moment, a scene of boats, buildings, and figures in a direct and unadorned way. Breitner was active at a time when Amsterdam was undergoing rapid change and industrialization and this sketch gives us a rare glimpse into the working-class neighbourhoods of the city. As art historians, we can look at census records, newspaper reports, and photographs to discover even more about the social conditions of the time.