Monet in Zaandam

Claude Monet in Zaandam

Claude Monet visited Zaandam in 1871. The famous French painter was so impressed by the Zaan landscape, the windmills, the wooden houses, and the Zaan river that he created an astounding 25 paintings and 9 sketches of the landscape.

Picturesque

The picturesque Zaan landscape enamoured Claude Monet and other painters in that time and drew them to the Zaan region, just as many local and international visitors are intrigued to visit the Zaanse Schans, which is home to the Zaans Museum.

Lowlands

Just like the painters of the nineteenth century, modern-day tourists still come to see that world-famous piece of Holland: the endless lowland with typically Dutch wide-open skies dotted with clouds, windmills, and wooden houses.

During his stay in the Netherlands, Monet wrote to his friend and painter Camille Pissarro: ‘Zaandam is especially attractive, and there is enough here to paint for a lifetime. I think we will
settle in very quickly. The Dutch appear to be a very gracious and hospitable people.”

The Zaans Museum has acquired the letter that painter Claude Monet wrote to his good friend and painter Camille Pissarro on 2 June 1871, the day of his arrival in Zaandam.

View Claude Monet’s letter to Camille Pissarro here.

View the letter

Read the translations

Industrialization

After 1871, industrialization notably changed the Zaan landscape. In the presentation you’ll see how painters that followed Monet, would often leave the factories, roads, and train tracks out of their works. They held fast onto the romantic image of the region, or following Monet, consciously or subconsciously, presented an impressionistic interpretation.