Geesje Kwak
Geesje Kwak | |
|---|---|
 Famous photograph of Geesje Kwak by George Hendrik Breitner (1894) | |
| Born | April 17, 1877 |
| Died | 1899 (aged 22) |
| Known for | Girl in a White Kimono |
Geesje Kwak (1877–1899) was a model of the painter and photographer George Breitner. She became known for the series of seven paintings (and accompanying photo studies) that Breitner made of her in 1893 and 1894 as the girl in a red and white kimono lying on a sofa and standing in front of a mirror in an oriental interior.[1][2][3]
Life
Gezina Kwak was born on April 17, 1877, in Zaandam, North-Holland, Netherlands.[4] Geesje moved to Amsterdam in 1893 at the age of sixteen with her elder sister Anna. Geesje became a seamstress and a hat seller. She and her sister first lived in the Govert Flinckstraat, and then in the Tweede van Swindenstraat in Dapperbuurt. The two sisters came into contact with the painter Breitner when he had just recovered from an eye infection and had moved into a studio at Lauriergracht. Breitner had visited an exhibition of Japanese prints in The Hague in 1892, and subsequently purchased several Japanese kimonos and a few folding screens. He had the two sisters pose in this setting in 1893.[5]
Geesje soon became his main model. She walked around the studio and Breitner took pictures and sketches of her. This is how the series of paintings by Geesje in kimono was created, of which Girl in a white kimono and Girl in red kimono is the best known.[6][7][8] However, Geesje did not pose for Breitner for very long. In 1895 she emigrated to South Africa with her younger sister Niesje. There she died of tuberculosis in 1899. She was only 22 years old. Geesje was paid for her work, and the relationship between her and Breitner appears to have been strictly businesslike. Breitner kept a meticulous note in a preserved notebook about when and how long she had posed for him, and what amount of money he had given her for it.[9]
Literature
- M. van Heteren, G. Jansen, R. de Leeuw: Poëzie der werkelijkheid; Nederlandse schilders van de negentiende eeuw (Poetry of reality; Dutch Painters of the Nineteenth Century). Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Waanders Uitgevers, blz. 183-184, 2000. ISBN 9040094195
Paintings & photographs
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Reference
- ^ "Meisje in witte kimono - Rijksmuseum Amsterdam - Nationaal Museum voor Kunst en Geschiedenis". web.archive.org. 2007-02-10. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
- ^ Boom, Mattie (1996). The Magical Panorama: The Mesdag Panorama, an Experience in Space and Time. B.V. Panorama Mesdag. ISBN 978-9040098635.
- ^ "Snapshot: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard at The Phillips Collection: DCist". web.archive.org. 2017-09-07. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
- ^ Zaanstad Municipal Archive (Zaandam births 1877, page 36v, deed 142). Her parents were the barge hand Jan Kwak (born Wormer, January 17, 1843) and his wife Willempje Posch (Zaandam, August 14, 1847 - Amsterdam, October 14, 1893).
- ^ In the Light of Vermeer: Five Centuries of Painting. The Mauritshuis. 1967. ASIN B000H7MSW4.
- ^ Beenker, Erik (2005). The Collection: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. p. 164.
- ^ "When Artists' Kodaks Were Supercool". The Wall Street Journal. 2012-02-04. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
- ^ "25 Mar 2012, Page 30". The Los Angeles Times. p. 30. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "5 Apr 2012, Page 4". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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