A Group of Houses c. 1880 - 1923

George Hendrik Breitner painted "A Group of Houses" with oil on canvas, though when exactly, we don’t know. The thing that grabs me here is the colour; that muted palette feels very Dutch and kind of reminds me of Vuillard, all beiges and browns, like a rainy day in Amsterdam. The paint is applied pretty thickly, almost like he's sculpting the buildings rather than just painting them. Take a look at the way he’s handled the tree in the foreground. It’s just a few quick strokes of green and brown, but it totally works. It’s like he’s saying, "I don't need to show you every single branch, you get the idea, right?" And you do! That kind of confidence, that trust in the viewer, is what I love about painting. It's like a conversation where you don't have to spell everything out. Painters like Breitner remind me that art is an ongoing exchange of ideas.