Houses on the Achterzaan
Waterside garden houses on the Achterzaan river at Zaandam, in the Netherlands — one of two dozen Dutch scenes Monet painted in 1871.
Achterzaan, Zaandam
The painting shows a real, identified place that you can find today. The exact spot the artist worked from is not necessarily known.
Houses on the Achterzaan — at a glance
- Artist
- Claude Monet (1840–1926)
- Year
- 1871
- Movement
- Impressionism (early)
- Place
- The Achterzaan river, Zaandam, the Netherlands
- Viewpoint
- Across the water to the west-shore garden houses — a stretch of riverbank, much built up since
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 46 × 67 cm
- Now at
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Robert Lehman Collection)
Overview
Houses on the Achterzaan is a small, bright river landscape Claude Monet painted in 1871 while living for a few months at Zaandam in the Netherlands. It shows a row of Dutch timber houses and their waterside gardens on the far bank of the Achterzaan, reflected in still water under a clear sky. It is oil on canvas, about 46 by 67 cm, and it hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in the Robert Lehman Collection.
The story behind the painting
Monet left France during the Franco-Prussian War and, after London, stopped at Zaandam on the advice of the painter Charles-François Daubigny. He stayed from June to October 1871 and painted around two dozen canvases of the town's waterways, windmills, boats and houses.
The Dutch light and the flat, water-threaded landscape suited the loose, light-filled manner he was developing on the eve of Impressionism.
Where was Houses on the Achterzaan painted?
Museum interpretation The Achterzaan is an arm of the river Zaan at Zaandam, north-west of Amsterdam, in a region famous for its green-painted wooden houses and windmills. Monet painted the west shore, with its garden houses standing at the water's edge. Zaandam is much built up now, but the green timber houses and the Zaan waterways survive in the town and at the nearby Zaanse Schans; this is a stretch of riverbank rather than one fixed address.
What is in the painting?
Across a broad band of calm water stands a line of small houses with steep roofs and green weatherboard walls, some with little jetties and garden fences at the water's edge. Trees rise between them. The buildings and the sky are mirrored almost exactly in the river; a boat or two lie near the bank.
Look closely
The green weatherboard houses
Steep-roofed timber houses painted the dark green typical of the Zaan region, standing right at the water's edge.
The mirror reflection
The houses and sky are doubled almost exactly in the still river.
The garden jetties
Small fences and landing stages mark each house's patch of waterfront.
Analysis
Composition and light
A low horizon, a wide sheet of reflecting water, and the houses as a bright horizontal band across the middle.
Scholarship Monet divides the canvas into water, houses and sky, and doubles the houses in reflection so the coloured band runs right across the picture. The touch is quick and broken, especially in the water; the colour is high and clear.
History & provenance
The painting entered the Robert Lehman Collection and, with it, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Sources
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York — collection entry for Claude Monet, ‘Houses on the Achterzaan’ (1871; Robert Lehman Collection; oil on canvas, c. 46 × 67 cm)
- Wildenstein, ‘Monet: catalogue raisonné’ — the 1871 Zaandam group
Related paintings
More by Claude Monet
Impression, Sunrise
Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son
