Reverse painting of windmill at Zaandam

Hello! I've had this painting (painted on glass, in this frame, 15.5" x 19.5", no signature) for half a century now and it was old when I found it in an attic of a house rented out with friends. We were told a German couple had lived there. The new landlord didn't appear to be concerned about any of it so I added this and a few other small paintings to my room (and then took with me...yes). I've researched windmill paintings until my eyes are blurred, cannot find anything close to this scene in particular, to maybe point to the artist, or any reverse paintings this impressionistic. But I did figure out it's a North Holland type of windmill. So your help, if you have any ideas or suggestions, would be wonderful. The last photo is the glass on its side with a light behind shining through it, viewed from the front side of glass. 3rd photo is the paint on the back of the glass, the last layer. Thank you for your consideration and worldly expertise!

 

Thanks, inh! However, it's Zinnie, with a Z.

 

No prob! I forgot to add I think the painting is wonderful as well and thankful it's still amazingly in one piece after all these years.

 

In my opinion it is a relatively late painting of this type. Most are 19th C but I think this one is well into the 20th. C.
I suspect it is a 'painting by numbers' type of amateur craft work.
I'm guessing the glass is flat, not slightly convex.

 

Welcome, Zinnie.
It has a 1930s feel to me, and could have been German made. Reverse glass painting is much more a Central European thing than a Dutch thing.

The subject seems to be inspired by Dutch windmills. The barges also look Dutch, but could be similar to other Northern European barges.
However, the dark blue shading suggests hills, which are rare in The Netherlands.

In your title you mention Zaandam, a town in the province of North Holland.
The construction of a mill on top of another building looks a bit like 'De Huisman', a windmill which used to be located in Zaandam. This is what it looks like now, not original:


'De Huisman' was moved to the open air museum of 'De Zaanse Schans' along with other mills. It had become obsolete, and didn't fit in with city planning.
A spice warehouse was added. That was not the original construction though.
View from the water, current situation:


At the time your painting was made, it looked like this:


As you can see, the buildings in both versions are wood, not brick, as in your painting.

Another Zaandam windmill, demolished ca 1916 (sources are not very clear about the date), the Oosterkattegatmolen. As far as I can see on old photos, the warehouse was also built of wood. Here it is on a painting by Monet:


This windmill is still in Zaandam, 'De Gekroonde Poelenburg':


There are other North Holland windmills with warehouses at 'De Zaanse Schans', but none of them look like yours. Which doesn't mean there never was a construction like on your painting.


Just for fun, a Dutch windmill magazine. In Dutch, but some nice pictures:
https://www.molenwereld.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Nr.-170-Mei-2013.pdf

 

Oosterkattegat... To what does that traslate, AJ? I keep hearing Danny Kaye singing...

 

Hi Any Jewelry - thank you so much for all that! A lot I had already viewed and captured screen shots of (to study more). The Monet you added especially looked promising and he did another painting of it from the opposite side. The black and white photo is very helpful - I think it's the same windmill, just not painted from reality perhaps.

The thought did occur to me after posting that it was more likely to have been created from memory (or from a darkish B&W photo?) since parts of it just didn't match up with what I was seeing, so that fits that someone in Germany may have made it who used to live in Holland? Or perhaps made it in the states after moving here? I'm in the midwest, lots of Germans and Swedish here.

I also get the feeling that it was a first attempt at painting on glass but by someone who had some painting skills. You have to figure out what needs painting first, not last, so I'm wondering if they started with the dark blue, saw it was too dark but couldn't remove it without making a mess of the other still-wet paint. The gap between the tree and the windmill points to that. The darker clouds at the top are mysterious though - maybe more psychological than a mistake. ?? Gives it a very personal feel though.

Even so the painter did great on the water shimmers and textures of everything else. The boats - these were 'barges'? - remind me of Vincent's boats. I hold no illusion of it being his but like to believe it's in the spirit of his work. I'll peruse the magazine today! Very fun, yes! Thanks again.

Hi and thanks to afantiques also - it looks too free-form imo to be a paint by number but thanks for that input. Yes, the glass is flat, and heavy, not a thin 'framing' glass - or maybe glass was more thick back then? So not a traditional reverse painting but using whatever what was available? Makes it even more personally unique then, to me. Thanks again!

 

It is an unusual piece, can't say I've seen anything quite like it. Maybe your guess that it was an attempt by someone with painting skills is a good bet.

I can see why you kept it.

 

@AnyJewelry - did I do that right? That magazine is outstanding! I never thought too much about windmills other than my painting but now they are part of my world. I'm intrigued to learn more about them.

You mentioned most were made of wood at Zaandam but it occurred to me that maybe my artist was just going for some wood texture. I found this photo that might bear that out. But then the magazine photos also showed brick ones too, just not in that area.

So I probably have a very personal one-off memory painting in the end, possibly using a not-so-good photo plus whatever else the artist chose to add, ie boats. And that works for me.

 

Thanks, Lucille.b - one of those things that become an intricate part of one's life even though not much is known about it. Until you have more time - lol!

 

Good morning, inh! That was another one of Monet's I saw last night as well that I copied for later viewing. So many paintings with small red-roofed buildings close by, they all started to look the same and not quite right. Which again tells me my painting isn't by anyone famous these days but a personal attempt. Still, they kept it even though it wasn't perfect - and so will I.

It's a mystery why it was left in the attic. I don't know if the couple moved away or passed on. There were other objects ie a mantle clock but the paintings caught my attention. I have 3 others to post, smaller and all made by the same artist who signed them, but I can't find anything about that person either! I'll do that today. Not like this painting, more traditional.

 

East Cat Hole. A kattegat or cat hole, is a Dutch maritime term for a narrow channel. There is also a stretch of water called Kattegat in Denmark, named by Dutch mariners:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kattegat

It even sounds funny in Dutch.
This is how it is pronounced, click on the loudspeaker symbol:
https://translate.google.com/?hl=nl#view=home&op=translate&sl=auto&tl=nl&text=oosterkattegat

 

Yes, barges, flat-bottomed boats. This one is from Groningen, another part of the country, but you can see the flat bottom which is characteristic of all barges:


I don't remember van Gogh painting barges, just those wonderful narrow fishing boats on the beach at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in southern France:

Very nice painting inh, I didn't know that one. The Onbekende Gracht (Unknown Canal) is in Amsterdam. A photograph from Monet's time:


This is how the same location looks now:

 

I meant the warehouses are made of wood. But the Zaan windmills are too.
The building under 'your' windmill looks like whitewashed brick. It also looks like a house (home), not a warehouse.
Most windmills are made of brick, btw, and many with reed thatching on the side, which the ones in the photo you posted seem to have. Is it Kinderdijk?

You could see if you can find your windmill on this site, the Dutch and Belgian mill database, in English:
http://en.molendatabase.nl/

I live more inland, we have more watermills than windmills. This medieval one is down the road from me:

 

In Amsterdam's defence (feeble, I know) the big building is an extension to the historic Carré theatre: