Girl in a White Kimono

A young woman in a white kimono stands against a plain ground in this life-size study, one of a celebrated series of Japanese-costume pictures that drew both scandal and admiration when they first appeared. George Hendrik Breitner, the leading figure of Dutch Impressionism in the 1890s, made the kimono series after the vogue for Japonisme swept Europe, and this example of 1894 is among the best known. The bold cropping, the flat expanse of white silk against a dark ground, and the model’s unposed directness show how far Breitner had absorbed the lessons of Japanese print design.