Kassen op de Ewijkshoeve

Kassen op de Ewijkshoeve — Greenhouses at the Ewijkshoeve — painted around 1900, documents a feature of the farm estate with a distinctly modern character: the glass greenhouse structure that extended the growing season and permitted cultivation of plants otherwise unsuited to the Dutch climate. Greenhouses were increasingly common on progressive Dutch farms and estates in the late nineteenth century, and Witsen's inclusion of this subject in his Ewijkshoeve series shows his interest in agricultural modernity as well as traditional farm life. Glass and iron structures had attracted painters since the Crystal Palace of 1851.

The greenhouse presents unusual pictorial challenges — transparent glass panels creating complex patterns of reflection and refraction, the interior visible through the structure's walls. Witsen handles the geometry of the glass construction with attention to its distinct visual character, different from the organic forms of landscape or the solid planes of building facades.