“Myself, I will paint the people in the street and in the houses, the streets and houses they have built, life in general. I will attempt to be 'le peintre du peuple' (the painter of the people), or rather I am that already, because I want to be. I want to paint history, and I will, but history in its' broadest sense. A market, a wharf, a river, a group of soldiers under a burning sun or in the snow..”

—  George Hendrik Breitner

The Hague, 1882
version in original Dutch (citaat van Breitner's brief, in het Nederlands:) Ik zelf, ik zal de menschen schilderen op de straat en in de huizen, de straten en de huizen die ze gebouwd hebben, 't leven vooral. Le peintre du peuple zal ik trachten te worden, of liever ben ik al, omdat ik 't wil. Geschiedenis wil ik schilderen en zal ik ook, maar de geschiedenis in haren uitgebreidsten zin. Een markt, een kaai, een rivier, een bende soldaten onder een gloeiende zon of in de sneeuw.. (Den Haag, 1882)
Quote of Breitner, in his letter to A.P. van Stolk nr. 24, 28 March 1882, (location: The RKD in The Hague); as quoted by Helewise Berger in Van Gogh and Breitner in The Hague, her Master essay in Dutch - Modern Art Faculty of Philosophy University, Utrecht, Febr. 2008]], (translation from the original Dutch, Anne Porcelijn) p. 6.
this quote dates from Breitner's period in The Hague and suggests that Breitner based his ideas for subjects and methods on French Realism in literature, similar to Vincent van Gogh; they read the same novels; lending them to each other. Together they went also through the lower neighborhoods of The Hague, c 1882, sketching and drawing the people
before 1890

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George Hendrik Breitner photo
George Hendrik Breitner 31
Dutch painter and photographer 1857–1923

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translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek
version in original Dutch (citaat van Breitner's brief, in het Nederlands:) ..Een markt een kaai een rivier. een bende soldaten.. ..is net zoo goed en meer geschiedenis dan 'De nichtjes van Spinoza komen hem bezoeken vergezeld door hunne mamma'. O! dat ik nog eens kon zeggen als Munkaczy: ik heb bijna alles geschilderd wat ik droomde toen ik 12 jaar was. dat kan hij zeggen hem die ik voor de grootste schilder hou wat ze hier ook mogen zeggen. Ik hoop dat U nog eens een waar schilderij van me moogt zien, niet een van de velen die ik zal moeten maken en ook wel iets is, maar iets waarachtigsch grootsch. Allemaal verspild vuur.
quote of Breitner in a letter to his Maecenas A.P. van Stolk, 28 March 1882; original text in RKD-Archive, The Hague https://rkd.nl/explore/excerpts/597
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