Construction Site in Amsterdam

A leader of the Dutch Impressionists, Breitner based this painting on a series of photographs he took of a construction site in Amsterdam. Although seemingly executed rapidly on site, the painting was in fact carefully composed in the studio. Aided by his own photographs and sketches, Breitner portrayed a city in transition. Like his friend Vincent van Gogh, Breitner admired naturalist literature and was determined to become a “painter of the people.”