Hussars on Maneuver

George Hendrik Breitner's 'Hussars on Maneuver' (1901) is one of his military subjects — the Dutch cavalry in training exercise depicted with the directness and energy that characterized all his figure in motion subjects. Breitner's engagement with military subjects alongside his Amsterdam city scenes and his nude studies showed the breadth of his practice, and his horses-in-motion subjects allowed him to apply his vigorous, summary brushwork to the most dynamic of figure-in-landscape subjects.

Breitner renders the hussars in motion with the confident, summary handling that was his most immediate characteristic — the horses and riders in the dynamic movement of the maneuver captured with the economy of gesture that could only come from sustained practice of direct observation. His handling of the soldiers' figures on horseback and the specific quality of light and dust in the military exercise creates the physical energy of the martial subject. His brushwork is characteristically loose and direct.