Overschie bij maneschijn

Overschie, a small town northwest of Rotterdam through which the main waterway to Delft ran, offered Jongkind a subject combining Dutch urban-pastoral character with the moonlit atmospheric effects he pursued throughout his career. Painted in 1871 during one of his periodic returns to the Netherlands from Paris, this nocturne shows the town reflected in the still water of the canal at night under moonlight. Jongkind's moon scenes were among his most celebrated works — the controlled, cool luminosity of moonlight over water offered a different register from his daylight studies, one that appealed to the Romantic taste for nocturnal atmosphere while demonstrating his command of tone. His friend and admirer Monet saw in such works the capacity of observed light conditions — any light, any time of day — to be the true subject of a painting. The Rijksmuseum holds this canvas as an important example of Jongkind's tonal mastery.

Nocturnal subjects required Jongkind to compress the full tonal range into a narrow band between near-black and pale silver. The moonlit sky is built with layered cool washes and dry-brush effects. Water reflections of buildings and moon are handled with vertical and near-horizontal strokes that suggest both stillness and the slight movement of the canal's surface.