Sailing ships off the port of Dordrecht

Jongkind painted this in Paris, working from memory and sketches after a few weeks spent in Dordrecht the previous summer. He thought Dordrecht the most beautiful city in the Netherlands and kept urging his French friends to go and see it. At the centre he set the tower of the Grote Kerk, the great medieval church whose heavy, never-finished tower has stood over the harbour for centuries. Dark sailing boats crowd the left of the canvas and lead the eye across the water toward it. The wide Dutch sky and the low light here were built up from recollection in his studio rather than painted on the spot.