A Group of Houses c. 1880 - 1923

This painting, A Group of Houses, captures a cluster of buildings through the eyes of George Hendrik Breitner, using oils in a muted palette of greens, browns, and grays. I can imagine Breitner standing there, brush in hand, really feeling the weight of the overcast sky. There’s a directness to the way he’s applied the paint, quite thin in layers, that makes me think about the act of seeing and how each brushstroke builds up a sense of place. The bare tree in the foreground—it’s just a few strokes of paint, but it speaks volumes about the season, about the quietness of the city. I find myself wondering if he added it in at the last moment. It reminds me of other painters like Vilhelm Hammershoi, who also found beauty in the everyday, in the quiet corners of urban life. It's like they're all in conversation with each other, across time, thinking about how to capture a feeling, a moment, in paint. And for me, that’s what painting is all about: not just representing something, but really feeling it, and letting that feeling guide your hand.