Il De Ruijterkade ad Amsterdam

In early October 1885 Van Gogh took the train to Amsterdam for three days, mainly to stand in front of the paintings at the recently opened Rijksmuseum, Rembrandt above all. Between museum visits he painted a few small panels of the city very fast. He told his brother Theo that these were done in a great hurry, and that one of them he had painted right in the station waiting room, having turned up too early for his train. This is one of those quick harbour views, the De Ruijterkade, its boats and grey working water caught in a single sitting. He was still two years away from the blazing colour of the south. Here the palette is the sober brown and grey of his Dutch years.