Neighborhood Street in Rijswijk near The Hague

Breitner's 'Neighborhood Street in Rijswijk near The Hague' (1901) captures the transitional suburban fringe between The Hague and the separate municipality of Rijswijk, an area then being absorbed into the expanding urban conglomeration. Breitner documented such urban and semi-urban streetscapes throughout his career, seeing in them the unglamorous but authentic texture of Dutch modern life. The canal-lined streets of the southern Holland towns, with their brick housefronts and grey skies, suited his tonal palette perfectly. This canvas at the Rijksmuseum belongs to a body of work that treats the ordinary city street as worthy of the painter's full attention.

Breitner structures the composition along a perspectival street view receding into grey distance, using the canal and road to create depth. Buildings are rendered with architectural directness while the sky is handled freely. His palette of greys, browns, and muted greens is typical of his urban street work, enlivened by occasional warm accents.