Artist. A painter and photographer, he was a contemporary and friend of Vincent Van Gogh’s. His reknown came from his photographic approach to paintings. Expelled from The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hauge due to his unruly behavior, he lived briefly in Paris before situating himself in Amsterdam, where he spent the remainder of his life. Although his early works focused on military subjects, he later turned to Impressionism and painted people on the streets of Amsterdam. He painted factory girls and domestic servants as well as upper-class ladies and women dressed in graceful kimonos. He drew a large number of daring nudes in unusual poses, as well as strikingly lovely sketches of children at play.  Perhaps his most famous work is a series of paintings of young women in kimonos; one of these paintings sold at Christies in October 2003 for $585,000 Euro.  He was equally skilled as a photographer in turn-of-the-century Amsterdam.  Among the thousands of photographs in the Amsterdam Municipal Archives (Gemeentearchief Amsterdam) are almost 300 city views taken by Breitner. (bio by: Shiver)