Portraits of Lise Jordan, George Hendrik Breitner, Lise Jordan, Jaap Batavier, Hein Boeken, Paul Verlaine and Herman Gorter

Also titled Portretten van Lise Jordan, George Hendrik Breitner, Lise Jordan, Jaap Batavier, Hein Boeken, Paul Verlaine en Herman Gorter

Willem Witsen (Amsterdam, 1860–1923)

c. 1860 - c. 1915

Medium
cardboard, paper, photographic support
Classification
photograph
Dimensions
height 157 mm x width 121 mm
Museum
Rijksmuseum
Rights
Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed

View at the Rijksmuseum

About this work

Witsen was a painter, etcher, and engraver of Amsterdam city views. The writers known as De Tachtigers (Literary Movement of Eighteen Eighties) and the artists’ models Marie and Lise Jordan met in his studio. In his free time Witsen photographed his friends in a way he had cribbed from Joseph Jessurun de Mesquita, who died young. He experimented endlessly, for instance with heads filling the picture plane and seen close up. He also managed to convince the French poet Verlaine to pose in front of his camera.