Provenance
C.W. Kraushaar, New York (from a label attached to back of frame, now lost) (according to note in department file). Mr. Edward B. Greene, Cleveland, Ohio (according to departmental card; see credit line).
Accession Number
1960.163.a
Medium
black chalk, watercolor, and gouache
Dimensions
Sheet: 31.1 x 47.8 cm (12 1/4 x 18 13/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. A. Dean Perry in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Belden Greene
Tags
Drawing Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Watercolor Gouache Dutch
Background & Context
Background Story
Arnheim (Arnhem) in the eastern Netherlands was subject matter close to Jongkind's Dutch roots. This view of the city across the Rhine shows the spired skyline rising above flat river landscape — a composition that directly descends from the Dutch Golden Age cityscapes of van Goyen and de Witte. But Jongkind's handling is entirely modern: the atmospheric perspective is achieved through washes rather than glazes, and the sky is suggested rather than described.
Cultural Impact
Jongkind made several trips back to the Netherlands throughout his career, and each produced a cluster of works revisiting the flat landscapes and big skies of his youth. These Dutch views represent the other side of his influence: not the proto-Impressionist harbor scenes that inspired Monet, but the connection back to the 17th-century Dutch tradition of landscape as topographic poetry.
Why It Matters
This Arnhem view links two traditions: the Dutch Golden Age lineage and the Impressionist future. It shows that modernism did not arise from nothing but from artists re-seeing their own traditions.
