DITA AMORY: Marine paintings feature prominently in Claude Monet’s work. River subjects allowed him to work out of doors, to paint reflective light, and to capture fleeting climatic changes—all of which were central to his artistic philosophy.

Monet painted this landscape in the town of Zaandam, in the Netherlands, in 1871. It’s a placid, serene canvas, painted in cool, muted colors. Monet has captured the effect of dappled, rippling water beautifully, as well as the open sky that stretches over the Dutch lowlands.

Monet traveled to the Netherlands in 1871, soon after France’s crushing defeat in the Franco-Prussian war. He undertook this trip on the advice of Charles-François Daubigny, a painter of the Barbizon school, whose work you will also see in this room. The subdued colors of this landscape reflect Monet’s interest in paintings of the Barbizon artists at this early stage in his career.