A Windmill on a Polder Waterway, Known as ‘In the Month of July’

Paul Joseph Constantin Gabriël's A Windmill on a Polder Waterway, known as 'In the Month of July' (1889), is among the most celebrated Dutch paintings of the nineteenth century — a canonical image of Dutch landscape as intimate, luminous, and profoundly connected to water management. Gabriël was a central figure of the Hague School, and this painting of a windmill reflected in still polder water captures the distinctive quality of Dutch light and the engineered landscape that defines the Netherlands. The Rijksmuseum's acquisition of this work places it at the heart of the national collection of Dutch cultural heritage.

Gabriël's handling of the still water and its reflections is masterly — the windmill and sky mirrored with luminous precision, the surface of the water given subtle movement through varied tone and touch. His palette is characteristically cool and silvery, capturing the specific grey-blue quality of Dutch summer light.