Polder landscape

Weissenbruch was a late master of the Hague School tradition, and this polder landscape from 1900 captures the characteristic Dutch scenery he spent his life painting: low horizons, vast skies, windmills half-submerged in meadow light, and the canals that crisscross the reclaimed land of Holland. By 1900 he was in his seventies and his handling had grown freer, the atmospheric haze of earlier works giving way to bolder, more confident paint.

A very low horizon cedes two-thirds of the canvas to a cloud-filled sky rendered in loose, wet strokes of grey-white and blue. The polder below is handled economically — green and olive marks suggest grass and water reflections, with a windmill providing the sole vertical accent.