Annotaties c. 1900 - 1901

This is a page of annotations by George Hendrik Breitner, now kept at the Rijksmuseum. It's likely a page from one of his notebooks, filled with scribbled calculations and notes. Breitner was working in the Netherlands in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is known for his paintings of Amsterdam city life and working-class subjects. So, what does this page of sums have to do with that? Well, understanding the economics of being an artist in Breitner's time can help us understand his choices as a painter. Looking through auction records, dealer inventories, and other archival material, one can begin to understand the economic pressures that Breitner and his contemporaries faced, the kind of financial calculations they had to make, and ultimately, how these conditions may have affected their artistic output.