Houses on the Achterzaan

Monet painted this in 1871, in the strange aftermath of France's crushing defeat in the war with Prussia. He had sat out the fighting in London, and on his way home he stopped in the Netherlands, in the little town of Zaandam near Amsterdam, on the recommendation of the older painter Daubigny. He stayed from May to October and found exactly what he wanted there, wide flat water, low wooden houses, and a sky that repeated itself in the reflections. These green and white houses along the Achterzaan sit on the far bank, their gardens running straight down to the water. In three months in Holland he painted about two dozen canvases, working almost entirely along the water's edge.