The Nieuwe Haarlemse Sluis on the Singel, Known as ‘Souvenir d’Amsterdam’  1871

Matthijs Maris claimed to have painted this picture in a single week in order to earn some quick cash. Maris, who lived in Paris, used a stereoscopic photograph of Amsterdam as his point of departure. He altered the photographic image and painted high-rise Parisian apartment buildings in the distance. The result is a dreamlike 19th-century cityscape, which reveals ever mor...