This series by Dutch painter George Hendrik Breitner is a beautiful example of the portrayal of kimono in the nineteenth century western art. The main model for all these paintings was a working class sixteen year old girl called Geesje Kwak who was transformed into a beauty from the far east, dressed in fine soft silks and holding a Japanese doll in her hands.
Sadly, Kwak did not pose for Breitner for very long. In 1895 she emigrated to South Africa with her younger sister Niesje. There she died of tuberculosis in 1899 aged 22.
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