This painting was created by the enigmantic dutchman Matthijs Maris, during his time in Paris. Maris was 33, and hadn't developed his mature ‘foggy’ style yet. His palette and technique still harken back to the almost medieval formality of Maris’s hero: Jean-François Millet. In this painting, the daughter of Maris’s brother’s maid, a girl named Julie Crottard, pumps water into a pitcher. The painting’s originial collectior, Veendorp, called it “a sublime summary of everything Dutch painting can do, starting with Van Eyck.”
