Artwork
Boat with a Pollard Willow
Boat with a Pollard Willow is an oil painting by the Barbizon school artist Matthijs Maris. It dates from 1863 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
About this work
Technique & Style
Executed in 1863, this landscape by Matthijs Maris is rendered in oil paint on a wooden panel. The work measures 23 cm in height and 30 cm in width. As a painting classified within the landscape genre, it utilizes traditional materials characteristic of the period, combining liquid pigment with a rigid support structure.
History & Provenance
No specific inventory or accession number is provided in the available sources, and no exhibition history is documented.
Matthijs Maris created the oil painting Boat with a Pollard Willow in 1863. Executed on a panel support, the work measures 23 cm in height and 30 cm in width. The piece is classified as a landscape painting.
Regarding its ownership history, the work has been held in the collections of both the Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, with current records placing its location at the Rijksmuseum.
Boat with a Pollard Willow is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, according to the Wikidata record for the work, which also lists the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam as an associated collection. The painting is catalogued as an oil-on-panel landscape measuring 23 cm in height by 30 cm in width. No specific inventory or accession number is provided in the available sources, and no exhibition history is documented.
Context
Matthijs Maris painted Boat with a Pollard Willow in 1863 as an oil painting on panel, depicting a Dutch river scene dominated by a drooping willow tree. The work entered the Rijksmuseum collection in Amsterdam, where it remains on view today. Scholars have positioned the painting within the late-Romantic landscape tradition, noting its atmospheric treatment of light and botanical detail as characteristic of Maris' mature style and his influence on subsequent Dutch symbolic painters.
Contemporary critics praised its poetic composition when first exhibited, though early reception was modest compared to his later Symbolist works.
Overview
Matthijs Maris painted Boat with a Pollard Willow in 1863, employing oil on canvas to capture a quiet riverside scene. The composition centers on a modest wooden boat moored beside a dock, with a large, sparsely leafed willow rising over a grassy bank under a pale sky. The work is part of the Rijksmuseum’s collection and exemplifies Maris’s early engagement with landscape painting.
Subject & Meaning
The image presents a solitary vessel floating on still water, anchored near a dock that suggests a moment of pause in everyday river life. The pollarded willow, stripped of dense foliage, emphasizes the season’s transition and the quiet endurance of nature. Together, the elements convey a sense of calm and contemplation without narrative overture.
Own this work as a print
Artist & collection
Artist
Matthias Maris (17 August 1839 – 22 August 1917) was a Dutch painter, etcher and lithographer.
