Canal Scene, Holland

Description A canal is lined with town houses and a windmill. In the foreground people in boats are engaged in washing fabrics in the water, perhaps an allusion to Amsterdam's numerous textile industries in the 19th century. Attempts to identify the actual site have proved unsuccessful. Ziem, to whom this painting was originally attributed, visited The Netherlands in 1850 and again in the summers of 1852 and 1853. Usually, he portrayed windmills along banks of rural waterways. In 1980 Pierre Miquel rejected the authenticity of this painting because of the highly atypical subject matter.

Provenance Georges Petit [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1922, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Signature] signed in red at lower right: Ziem

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1922