Girl in a White Kimono

DailyArt's Monday mood... Appearing totally relaxed, a young girl wearing a Japanese kimono lies in an exotically furnished interior: spread on the floor and sofa are Eastern carpets, while behind the girl is a Japanese screen. The kimono and the background are painted with a swift, clearly visible brushstroke. The girl's face, on the other hand, is finely rendered. In Europe towards the end of the nineteenth century interest in all things Japanese was growing, and strongly influenced the artists of the time. George Hendrik Breitner, who painted this scene, was also affected for a time by Japanism. In the years 1893-1894 he painted seven 'girls wearing a kimono' in various poses. Geesje Kwak was Breitner's model for all his paintings of girls in kimonos. She was a 16-year-old hat-seller who lived in the Jordaan district of Amsterdam. Breitner first took photographs of Geesje, wearing a red or white kimono, standing, seated, or lying in various poses. He used the photos as the basis for his painting. However, Breitner did not copy the photos slavishly: he altered the position and the viewpoint and experimented with format and composition. Breitner was regularly using his own photographs as an aid in his paintings as early as 1885.