Neighborhood Street in Rijswijk near The Hague c. 1880 - 1923

Editor: Right now we’re looking at George Hendrik Breitner’s “Neighborhood Street in Rijswijk near The Hague,” oil on canvas, sometime between 1880 and 1923. It’s almost claustrophobic, isn't it? This narrow street… What really grabs you when you look at this piece? Curator: You’re right, it is rather intimate. Breitner really traps us in this space, doesn’t he? I find it’s the way the light just catches the building at the back, pulling our eye right in. Almost as if we’re being drawn down a memory lane… or a very personal passage of the artist. And what is it about that, do you think, that evokes that mood for you? Editor: It feels like a stolen glimpse, I guess. A moment caught in time. Did Breitner often paint cityscapes like this? Curator: Absolutely. He was really fascinated by the everyday hustle and bustle, those overlooked moments of city life. Unlike the grand vistas, this painting almost feels like he just set up his easel on a whim and captured a specific mood. Perhaps even a grey Dutch day! But the magic, to me, lies in the immediacy, the sketch-like quality, which allows us to feel like we are actually there in Rijswijk. It has that “now you see it, now you don’t” feel, doesn’t it? Almost like a photograph… What about that back space though? Editor: Yeah, it makes it hard to say where the street starts and where it ends! What have you learned that surprised you the most today? Curator: You have pushed me into thinking about hidden urban memories, and I realize it’s not about the grandness, it’s the feeling you get just being present at that moment. Editor: Totally, those details make it great! It is so cool to think about him capturing this and how those spaces exist within us all!