The Earring

The Dutch-born Breitner was the most important chronicler of Amsterdam street life in the late nineteenth century. He depicted the thriving metropolis in paintings and drawings, favoring a realistic style and even exploring photography as a means of documenting what he saw. But in 1893-4, after recovering from a period of eye infection, he produced a series of relatively subdued paintings that revealed a different side to his personality — depictions of girls and young women in Japanese kimonos. Most of the subjects are shown seated or reclining on a sofa. Here, however, the woman — a slender, elongated, elegant figure — stands before a mirror and adjusts her earring. On the left is an Oriental screen. 

The series was inspired by the Japanese prints that were in vogue at the time; Breitner himself had a number of them in his collection, along with the kimonos worn by the models. The young woman who modelled for this painting, Geesje Kwak (1877-1899), can also be seen in other works in this series by Breitner. Rotterdam's Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, where this work is housed, has nine paintings and twenty–two drawings from his hand. Among them is a black chalk sketch that he made as a study for this painting. Though it is now known as The Earring, Breitner himself called it At the Mirror.