Canal in Amsterdam, 1874 by Claude Monet

Amsterdam was one of Monet's favorite places and, like Venice, which he visited in 1908, afforded him the scenes of buildings along water that he loved. He first traveled there in the early 1870s, having spent some time in London avoiding the conflicts within France. The bridges in Amsterdam were a major motif for him, indeed bridges in general, and it is interesting to compare this Canal in Amsterdam with The Drawbridge Amsterdam, painted in the same year. Both paintings are full of life, bustling with people going about their daily business and also with the life of the water itself. He has treated water and sky in the some way in the Canal in Amsterdam, so that one almost appears as a continuum of the other. Although this was not uncommon for the artist, it is worth considering that the actual weather in Amsterdam can be damp and overcast, with moisture in the air. He has used small brushstrokes throughout the canvas and has created a unified whole by treating the entire painting with the same brushstroke approach.