This landscape shows an area of peat bogs and reed beds which was prone to flooding, and was used mainly for fishing and sailing. The canes were harvested for thatching roofs. The windmill is typical of those in the Rijnland area. Weissenbruch worked in that area from the late 1870s onwards. The reeds, waterlilies and clear light in this painting suggest it was completed in late summer or early autumn, a time of year which Weissenbruch generally favoured. The marshy landscape with its maze of narrow waterways was difficult to negotiate on foot and it is likely that Weissenbruch worked on the panel out of doors from a boat.