Spelende kinderen in een straat c. 1890 - 1988

George Hendrik Breitner captured these playing children in a street with a camera, creating two gelatin silver prints of different sizes, each a slice of bustling, everyday life. It makes you wonder what he was thinking at the time. Look at that girl on the right, with her head slightly bowed. I wonder what she's looking at, what she's thinking. You can almost feel the quiet stillness around her, contrasting with the other children in the image who are captured in mid-movement. It's a moment of pure being, framed within the larger narrative of the scene. Breitner was deeply interested in capturing the transient moments of city life. Like Edgar Degas or Toulouse Lautrec, he had a penchant for documenting modern life. In this image, he turns his attention to the simple joys of childhood within an urban environment. I’m sure they never thought they were part of this conversation we are having now, looking at them with the same wonder.