An Outing

On a levee road bordering a canal, a farmer with his cart meets a family returning to a distant farmstead. The stragglers lean into their steps to catch up, as the sunset reflected on low clouds leaves them little time before dark. Such scenes challenged artists to depict the shimmering textures of land, water and sky.

Both Kiers' mother and father were painters specializing in scenes of daily life. His formal training, however, was with a marine painter, J.H.L. Meijer. Kiers became a landscapist specializing in shore scenes, in watercolor and etching as well as in oils. After moving between the Hague, Assen in the eastern Netherlands, and Amsterdam, he settled in the latter city in 1868.