Tulip Fields near The Hague

In the spring of 1886 a French diplomat stationed at The Hague talked Monet into coming north to see the bulb fields in flower. He had worked in the Netherlands twice before, both times on water and mills, and had never tried this. He stayed about two weeks, got five canvases out of it, and wrote that it was impossible to render such colours with the poor ones in a paintbox. The Dutch title of this one places the field, with its windmills, near Leiden. Back in Paris he sold it through the dealers Boussod, Valadon and Company, whose branch on the boulevard Montmartre was run by Theo van Gogh. Theo's brother Vincent was living with him in Paris that year, so he may well have seen it on the wall.