On the Y, Amsterdam

Sir Muirhead Bone was a Scottish printmaker and watercolor artist noted for his depictions of architectural and industrial subjects, city views, and landscapes. He visited the Netherlands in 1913. The River IJ (also called the River Y) defines the waterfront of Amsterdam. In this daily life scene along the river Y, Bone depicted two pollarded willows on the river bank flanking a glimpse of three moored boats — two boats with tall masts "echoing" the verticality of the tree trunks . At the lower center, a man and dog are seated to the left of one of the trees, while a man holding a pole stands to the right of this tree. The artist also outlined a few additional boats on the river at right. The expanse of sky is blank and uninked, except for a hint of plate tone to evoke the atmosphere of a cloudless day; along the bottom of the image, Bone used drypoint to scratch lines to indicate tall grass (at left), and he wiped a veil of ink (plate tone) along the bottom to render the earth tones of the river bank.