neighborhood in Jordaan (Lauriergracht & 2e Laurierdwarsstraat)

Breitner's depiction of the Jordaan neighbourhood — specifically the intersection of Lauriergracht and the 2nd Laurierdwarsstraat in Amsterdam — dates from 1901 and forms part of his celebrated Amsterdam series. The Jordaan was one of Amsterdam's oldest working-class districts, a maze of narrow canals and tall brick houses that had barely changed since the seventeenth century. Breitner painted it obsessively in rain, snow, and overcast light, drawn to its textural richness and human density. This canvas is held at the Amsterdam Museum, fitting for a work that functions as a visual monument to a neighbourhood that would be radically altered in the twentieth century.

Breitner uses the canal's vertical reflections and the tall canal-house facades to create a stacked, dense composition with limited sky. The grey-green water mirrors the architecture in broken, rippling strokes. Muted reds of brick and the silver-grey of stone and sky constitute a deliberately restricted palette typical of his Amsterdam work.