The middle of the Nuenen period

The record dates Water Wheels of Mill at Gennep to 1884, the second of the three years this catalogue assigns to Nuenen. Gennep is named in one title out of 610, and mills of one sort or another in two titles dated that year.

What the record gives

The canvas measures 78.5 by 60 centimetres and is held by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The Stedelijk holds five works in this catalogue, dated 1884, 1887 and 1889 — one from each of three different periods, which is unusual for a holding that small. The measured palette reads as brown.

1884 is the brown year

Of the twenty-five works dated 1884, eighteen return brown as a dominant family. That is the highest proportion of any year in the ten, and it is the single clearest measurement behind the way this site divides the decade. By 1888 the same count is three out of 135. Only eight of the 1884 entries carry a recorded size, so this one does double duty: it is dated, measured and located, which for the early years is close to a complete card. What the mill was for, and whether it still stands, the record does not say.