Gust of Wind

Around 1890, most painters in Amsterdam waited for good light. Breitner looked for the opposite, the grey skies, the rain and the wind that sent people hurrying through the streets. This small canvas, barely 24 by 32 centimetres, holds one of those moments. Two girls push forward against a sudden gust, their aprons snapping sideways. He wanted the city as it actually moved, not a posed scene but a passing second of bad weather that most painters would have waited out. It belongs to a group of street pictures he built from quick sketches made outdoors, in exactly the weather he went looking for.