Breitner’s kimono girls: adventures of young women highlighted in book

The kimono paintings by George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923) are among the painter’s most beloved works. From 1893 onwards, Breitner painted a series of petite girls in kimono in his home on the Lauriergracht. It was a new subject for the painter, after he had recently suffered from a venereal disease, which had temporarily affected his vision.

The girl in the painting is almost always the same model, Geesje Kwak (1877-1899). For a summer she would pose, not only for sketches and paintings, she also appears in photos he took in preparation. Occasionally, Anna Kwak, Geesje’s sister, took her place. It was unknown that Breitner also photographed her, those photos are included in the book. It was known that Geesje emigrated to South Africa in 1895, where she died a few years later of tuberculosis. She was only 22 years old.

In 2016, the Rijksmuseum brought together all thirteen girls in kimono. For that exhibition, Jenny Reynaerts, senior curator at the Rijksmuseum, researched the Kwak sisters. “That ended up being a paragraph or two in the book.” But later she got in touch with descendants of the Kwak family, who sent a few photos.

Good story

Reynaerts: “Those were not photos that were relevant to the exhibition. We already knew that Geesje had gone to South Africa with her sister Niesje. In 2017 I saw Hans Goedkoop in the documentary series Good Hope at the monument to the Dutch in Transvaal. He said, here lies Vincent van Gogh’s brother and here lies Piet Mondriaan’s brother and I shouted at the TV: and Geesje and Niesje Kwak! There was just a nice story in it, also because I knew in the meantime that Anna had emigrated to California.”

In recent years, more attention has been paid to models in paintings. While art historians used to be mainly interested in the vision of the artist, researchers are increasingly focused on the social circle around the makers. Anonymous models are increasingly given a name and a personality.

For Reynaerts there was another motivation. She is chair of the ‘Women of the Rijksmuseum’ project. The working group was established to examine objects in the collection from a gender perspective. The goal is a more complete story of history with more attention for women. “We tell a lot of stories about the male heroes of the 17th century, we often don’t know what their wives did. It turns out that those women simply helped to supply ships, in breweries and at printers. So a completely different picture emerges and that applies to all of history.”

Such as the Kwak sisters, two women about whom the wildest stories were circulated. They are said to have led a dissolute life. As a womanizer, Breitner would know what to do with such immoral types. The girls were said to be 16 years old or 12 when posing. Sometimes Geesje is referred to as a hat seller, in other cases it is suggested that she was a prostitute. Geesje is said to have even fled to South Africa because she had become pregnant by Breitner.

Anna’s secret

There appears to be no evidence for many such stories. In any case, Geesje was not a hat seller. Marie Jordan, Breitner’s later wife, was. Hence the confusion. Geesje was probably a maid. Yet the atmosphere of prostitution still hangs around Geesje and Anna. At one point during the posing summer they lived in Govert Flinckstraat, which is described in an 1896 study as one large brothel. Anna also appears to have been treated for syphilis as a young adult. Reynaerts: “We don’t know exactly how it all happened because such things were not written down. That remains Anna’s secret.”

The book describes how the Kwak sisters – Anna, Geesje, Niesje, Aafje – and their brother Arend initially lived in Zaandam. They moved to Amsterdam in 1880, where they had a number of addresses, especially in the Czaar Peterbuurt, Kattenburg and in the Dapperbuurt. Their father worked as a skipper in the port.

Two years after Breitner wrote his first Girl in kimono painted, Geesje and Niesje Kwak boarded the SS Greek. The large, modern steamship sailed from Southampton to South Africa. Their ultimate destination was Pretoria, the capital of the South African Republic, also called Transvaal.

But surprisingly few traces can be found there. There was no population register, it is unknown why they made the crossing, who paid for it and what kind of work they did there. Reynaerts does make suggestions: “The vast majority of women who went to Transvaal worked as domestic servants, because there was a demand for that. There is also evidence from relatives who say she worked in a shop. I think I know which one.” Geesje died of tuberculosis, which may also have been a reason to move to a country with a better climate. Later Aafje would also emigrate to South Africa.

Anna, in turn, emigrated to California in 1907, which had been hit by a devastating earthquake the year before. Anna’s life there was easy to reconstruct thanks to her foster daughter Antonia Brico, the first female conductor in the United States, who left behind an extensive archive.

Women of flesh and blood

The starting point of the book was a series of paintings, but ultimately it became a social-historical story about the adventures of four young women. “That also really interests me. I also think that as an art historian you should always include that history. But I also think that my story is based on analyzing images, putting things next to each other, comparing and looking.”

In any case, Reynaerts now looks differently at Breitner’s paintings with girls in kimono. “I now see the people much more. Breitner painted their faces, he could use them for whatever he wanted. But now I see women of flesh and blood. In the end, they only posed for Breitner for a short time, it was only a fraction of their lives.”

Jenny Reynaerts, Geesje & Anna, The world of Breitner’s famous models, Rijksmuseum, ISBN 978 94 6208 852 8, € 25.