Witweg: February 29th 2020

A strange day, which is only part of our lives and our calendar once every four years. It is like being in no man’s land, in limbo, squashed between February and March, living this obscure day. Although nobody notices, except people born on that particular day, who can at last really celebrate their birthday on the day itself and don’t have to skip over it. If anything, this odd day in more sense than one, proves that we have not really succeeded in getting to grips with time, I think. Throughout the ages there have been many different ways of calculating and organizing time, of making calendars, but none of them were ideal as far as I know. And in spite of all our technical and scientific progress and academic knowledge, we are still left with this strange day, a gap into which we put all the spare minutes which we have collected during the previous four years. We make strict schedules, divide time into days, months, years, try to tame time, only to notice after four years that there is some time left! What do we do? Well, we smuggle an extra day in at the end of an already short month so that nobody may notice. Although we need food for this day as well, most people won’t get paid for this extra day of work, except for those who are paid daily, or by the hour, and in this part of the world not many people are. My window cleaner is paid each day after he has done his job, a jack-of-all-trade doing odd jobs is paid by the hour, but most people won’t benefit at all.

How did I use this “extra” day? I went to see an exhibition in a nearby town, Breitner versus Israel, comparing the works of two famous painters, Isaac Israels (1865-1934) and George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923). They were friends and rivals and painted mostly in The Hague and Amsterdam. Many of their paintings are well-known, and I must admit when seeing a painting and guessing which of the two painted it, I am often wrong. I love their paintings, as I do those of several others of the “Haagse School” (Jacob Maris, Mesdag, Anton Mauve). Jozef Israels, the father of Isaac, was a famous painter too and belonged to this group. Isaac Israels, Jozef’s son, and Breitner later became the main painters of “Amsterdam Impressionism”, an art movement in late 19^th-century Holland

I thoroughly enjoyed the paintings. My smartphone was a great help as many museums nowadays offer tours and extra information via an app, information which can be saved to be reread and consulted later.

I find it hard to choose one picture which impressed me most, although I had promised myself just to choose one, and one only. But I can’t! They are all so different, using different techniques. Many are very well-known, but I can’t resist showing you some I particularly liked, hoping you will too.

The Keizersgracht in Amsterdam and the corner of the Reguliersgracht, painted by Breitner around 1895

What struck me as a keen but amateur photographer, was the light on the two gabled corner houses, and the beautiful reflections in the canal(s). It has a poetic quality, and is so much more than just a picture. It would be lovely to step into this painting and walk along the canals, not spoilt nor polluted yet by cars and traffic.