The Amsterdam painter Breitner painted fourteen so-called ‘kimono paintings’. The model for thirteen of these is the originally Zaanse Geesje Kwak (Zaandam, 1877). She posed for Breitner between the ages of 16 and 18 in the period 1893-1896. The fourteenth painting shows her younger sister Anna.
A book about the Zaanse sisters entitled ‘Geesje & Anna’ will be published today. It is about the life of the Kwak sisters and was written by Jenny Reynaerts and is published by the Rijksmuseum. The book describes how the Kwak sisters – Anna, Geesje, Niesje, Aafje – and their brother Arend first lived in Zaandam. They moved to Amsterdam in 1880. Their father worked as a skipper in the port.
Geesje and Anna’s parents moved to the Amsterdam district of De Pijp. Later they lived in the Dapperbuurt. The paintings were created in Breitner’s studio on the Lauriergracht. In many cases he took photos first. Geesje emigrated to South Africa and died there of tuberculosis in 1899 at the age of 22. Her sister Anna went to California. Her foster daughter, Antonia Brico, became the first female conductor in the US.
Below is a podcast about the book in which the author speaks.
Below is the video that was made by the Rijksmuseum to introduce the exhibition in 2018. There, all 14 kimono paintings by the Amsterdam painter were on display together for the first time.
By Piet Bakker, with thanks to Jan Schoen. Information from Art windows and Rijksmuseum.
