© NCG Signature/Inscription: Signed lower right: 72 Claude Monet Place of Origin: -- Type of work: Painting Iconography: Landscape Glossary of technical terms: see Dictionary MIN 3233 Monet, Claude (Oscar-Claude) French, 1840-1926 Windmill and Boats near Zaandam, Holland Presumably 1871 Oil on canvas, 48 x 73.5 cm Monet spent the summer of 1871 in Holland on his way back to France from an ‘exile’ in London precipitated by the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune. Settling in Zaandam, 12 km outside Amsterdam, he made 24 paintings of which three, including this one, depict the windmill, Het Oosterkattegat and the open expanse of water at Vorzaan and Ij. On his return to France his mentor, Boudin, wrote: ‘Monet has returned from Holland with a series of magnificent pictures. He will undoubtedly come to play a leading role in our movement.’ Monet’s brushwork in this early work is inspired by Manet, whom he had met in 1866 and whom he greatly admired. The picture appears to be an essay on the old and the new. In the left foreground stands an old windmill, set amongst natural vegetation and complemented by traditional sailing vessels. On the distant horizon to the right appears the silhouette of a more modern, industrial area. The drifting smoke from the chimneys in the distance might be read as a sign of the new epoch. In this regard, the painting presages the extensive investigation of the intrusion of modern industry into an older France undertaken by Monet in the subsequent four years at Argenteuil, on the river Seine. SMS Location: On loan Enlarged Photo Provenance NCG Catalogue references Exhibition History Shop   Luk