A slender woman stands before a mirror and puts on an earring. This is Breitner's favourite model: the young hat salesgirl Geesje Kwak. We se her from behind, but her concentrated expression can be seen in the mirror. She is wearing a blue kimono with a flower pattern. She wears a white sash around her waist. George Hendrik Breitner mainly painted scenes of everyday life in Amsterdam. He painted a large series of paintings of young women wearing kimonos, of which this is one. In the second half of the nineteenth century there was a growing interest in Japanese art in Europe. Japanese art objects were shown at the various Worlds Fairs and exhibitions of Japanese prints were organised. Artists such as Monet, Manet and Van Gogh were inspired by Japanese art. Around 1890 Breitner noted the titles of several books on Japanese art in his sketchbook. It seems he too was reading about Japanese art. It is in the same period that he made his paintings with young women in kimonos.

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   Breitner was the most important chronicler of Amsterdam street life in the late nineteenth century. He portrayed the dynamic, rapidly growing city in paintings, drawings and photographs. In the early 1890s, after a period of illness, he produced a series of relatively subdued paintings, revealing a different side to his personality. They are depictions of girls and young women in Japanese kimonos. Most are shown seated or reclining on a sofa. Here, however, the woman—a slender, elongated, elegant figure—stands before a mirror and adjusts her earring. On the left is an Oriental screen. The series was inspired by the Japanese prints that were in vogue at the time—Breitner himself had a number of them in his collection. The woman who modelled for this painting, Geesje Kwak, can also be seen in other works by Breitner. The museum has nine paintings and twenty–two drawings from his hand. Among them is a black chalk sketch that he made as a study for this painting. Though it is now known as The Earring, Breitner himself called it At the Mirror.

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