A realist painter and photographer from Holland, George Hendrik Breitner did painting that was very popular among the general public but was disdainful to many late 19th/early 20th century art critics because at a time when modernism and its abstractions were taking hold, he promoted realism. He saw himself as the painter of the people, and the people responded with great fondness for his work. Among his favorite subjects were city scenes with working-class people in low-income neighborhoods such as servant girls and construction workers. He was also a painter of female nudes and received criticism for them for being too real and not promoting idealistic beauty.

Early in his career, from 1877 to 1883, ...