The Trekvliet Shipping Canal near Rijswijk, known as the ‘View near the Geest Bridge’

The Trekvliet is an old waterway. It was dug in the 1340s, on the orders of Count William IV of Holland, to link The Hague with the Vliet, the canal between Leiden and Delft, and for centuries horse-drawn passenger barges travelled along it. In 1868, when Weissenbruch painted this small panel, working boats like the dark-sailed barge moored at right still used it.

The Rijksmuseum calls the picture still Romantic in feel, with its bright colours and clean detail, yet the view is true to the place. Far off at left is the tower of De Binckhorst castle, and at right stands the Laakmolen windmill. On the path a woman carries a baby, a small child at her side and a little dog ahead of them. Two years later Weissenbruch painted the Trekvliet again, on a larger canvas now in the Kunstmuseum Den Haag.