Monet’s first trip to the Netherlands was not a whimsical journey in search of new subject matter, but rather a necessity of politics. After Monet, his wife Camille and their baby spent the Franco-Prussian War in London, they went, in order to avoid the bloody aftermath of the Commune, to Zaandam, a town just to the north of Amsterdam. For several months, the young family remained in Holland, where Monet produced some two-dozen canvases, finally returning to France in the autumn of 1871. While their residence near the Dutch capital may have been one born out of strife, in Zaandam the artist was inspired by the brightly painted houses, waterways and windmills.

A couple of years later, Monet returned to Holland. Pivoting from his previous painting sites in Zaandam, he instead took up several well-known vistas in Amsterdam proper, examining viewpoints across canals in much the same way he would do in London at the turn of the century and Venice in 1908 (see figs. 2 and 3). This second Dutch painting campaign is one of the least-well documented in Monet’s career. It seems he sold almost all the paintings he created there by 1880, including the first work to enter an American collects ion when, on the advice of Mary Cassatt, Louisine Havemeyer acquired Le Pont, Amsterdam in 1875 (see fig. 1). Due to these early acquisitions as well as the apparent lack of handling by his Paris-based dealers at the t.mes they were painted, little was known about this second group of Dutch works. They are all dated to 1874 in the catalogue raisonné though it is possible they were executed a year earlier in 1873.

Regardless of the precise year of execution of this suite of works, they clearly date to Monet’s conquest of Impressionism. His technique, the lilting touches of the brush worked quickly over canvas, painting on the scene en plein air, is full of the energy and immediacy of this nascent movement, whose first exhibition would take place in the spring of 1874. Indeed it was Monet’s canvas, Impression, Sunrise that would lend its title to this group of painters, forever altering the course of art history (see fig. 4). It is this moment that is encapsulated in Vue de la tour Montalban, Amsterdam.

Set on the Oude Schans canal, the tower of Montelbaanstoren was originally built in 1512 as a part of the old city walls of Amsterdam. In 1606, the clock and decorative elements were added to the tower. It gained the nickname of “Mall Jaap (Silly Jack)” due to the unreliable nature of the clock whose bells would ring at the wrong t.mes or not ring at all. One of the only parts of the old city walls to remain, it was a natural attraction for visitors to the city, including Monet. In the present work, Monet vividly captures this setting—one of the central canals of a bustling city—with staccato black brushstrokes of human figures below the tower, boats tied two and three abreast, the outline of a bridge along the horizon.

The first owner of the present work was the artist and critic Zacharie Astruc, whose works were included in the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874. A close friend of Édouard Manet’s (who portrayed Astruc in several canvases; see fig. 5), Astruc was involved in many different art forms and was a close adherent to both the focus and interest in Spanish art in the 1860s and the japonisme of the following decades. While it is uncertain precisely when Astruc acquired this work, it was sold by him to Galerie Durand-Ruel in 1882 who in turn sold the painting to Anna and Sidney Posen in 1911.

Anna Posen (1860–1944) née Liebmann and her husband, the Swiss factory owner Sidney Posen (1852–1937), resided in Frankfurt am Main, where they were renowned for their esteemed collects ion of paintings, decorative art objects, and books. Their collects ion, notably acclaimed for its preference for French impressionist artists like Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro, remains significant today. However, their lives took a tragic turn from 1933 onwards when, as Jews, they faced persecution under the Nazi regime. Following Sidney's death in 1937, Anna, who by this t.mes was 82, managed to flee to Switzerland in 1942. Despite Anna’s efforts to preserve her collects ion, her economic circumstances compelled her to sell a portion of it to sustain herself after having been forced to leave Germany. This is the first t.mes Vue de la tour Montalban, Amsterdam has appeared at auction. This lot is offered with the benefit of a settlement agreement that resolves any issues arising from the past ownership of this work.