A view on the Zweth at Schiedam

An oil on panel of 1853 by the Dutch artist Joseph Bles (1825-1875) titled, A view on the Zweth at Schiedam. The Zweth is one of the windmills on the Schiedam, these are some of the largest windmills in the world located near Rotterdam in The Netherlands. The figures in the painting were called "staffage", the German word meaning decoration. Some critics claim that the figures are not the central theme of the painting, but merely human forms that have been painted to fill the landscape. The boat on the extreme left is named “De Haring”. This is deliberate play on the Dutch idiom meaning, Als Een Haring Naar de Sloep Staren, which can be loosely translated into English as “to stare like a haring at the fishing sloop” or “to look sad”. A small group of people are depicted in the bottom right corner of the painting. They appear wealthy, neatly dressed sitting alongside the muddy river and appear to fishing for pleasure. On the opposite side of the river, there is a girl in traditional Dutch dress, which is much more modest and she is fishing for survival. This Bles painting is based on the wealthy or rich aiming for a simple life and the poor, depicted by the girl wishing for a better life. The painting is part of the University of Pretoria art collection and the provenance of the work shows that the Dienst der Belastinge or, the Dutch Tax service sold the work at an Auction house known as Van Marle, de Sille & Baan in Rotterdam on 28 February 1951, Lot 14. The Dutch Tax service acquired the work from the Firm, B. Katz in Dieren as compensation for outstanding tax. J A van Tilburg (1888-1980) purchased this work presumably on auction and it remained in this collection until 1957 when it was imported into South Africa and he then bequeathed his vast collection in 1976 to the University of Pretoria.