A view of the IJ harbour in winter, Amsterdam

This second Smit in our collection is a little jewel and undoubtedly one of his masterpieces. The subject of ships docked in winter is unusual as Smit usually painted vessels caught by storms at sea. The artist succeeds in convincingly creating a very cold winter day. An attractive detail is the man sitting on an ice floe in the left foreground creating depth in the scene. The man watches the tiny skating figures which emphasize the monumentality of the vessels’ hulls.