The present work dates from Serov's trip through Europe in 1885, which preceded his departure from the Imperial Academy of Arts. It depicts Amsterdam from the elevated vantage point of the room Serov was staying in. A comparable example in oil from 1887, executed during the artist's second European trip of this period, is in the State Tretyakov Gallery collects ion and shows Venice’s central embankment, Riva degli Schiavoni, as viewed from a similar standpoint. Filled with a sense of immediacy, these works record the impressions which profoundly enriched Serov’s subsequent work.

View of Amsterdam is reproduced and mentioned in the text of Igor Grabar's seminal 1914 monograph on the artist (fig.1).

Since then, the work has been further published and exhibited on numerous occasions, including at the artist’s 1914 posthumous exhibition. The work's first owner was Fedor Shekhtel, a leading representative of Art Nouveau in Russian architecture and creator of numerous iconic architectural landmarks in Moscow.