Many impressions from that trip influenced Monet's later work. In London, he found artistic inspiration in the mist and fog that enveloped the city; in Zaandam in Holland, he was fascinated by the clear air with its wind and clouds.

Two paintings by Monet in the Hasso Plattner Collection show the port basin of Zaandam. The city is located not far from Amsterdam, directly on the North Sea Canal. On the opposite side of the waterway are the large complexes of the west port of Amsterdam. Monet, who had grown up in Le Havre with its large overseas harbor, here shows us the small, placid anchorage of Zaandam. 

Here we can already clearly see Monet’s interest in capturing varying impressions of light. In these works, he analyzed the effect of sunlight on the atmosphere of a landscape at different times of day. In so doing, he laid the foundation for a completely new perception of nature, one that would shape not only his own work, but that of an entire generation of Impressionist painters. 

The two works are part of the Hasso Plattner Collection, on permanent display in the Museum Barberini since the year 2020. The collection includes paintings not only by Claude Monet, but also by other major Impressionists such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Gustave Caillebotte, Berthe Morisot, and Paul Signac. Over 110 works by 23 artists offer an overview of the history of French Impressionism from its beginnings in the nineteenth century to its development by the Pointillists and the Fauves in classical modernism. With 40 paintings by Claude Monet, the Museum Barberini houses the largest collection of his works in Europe outside of Paris, making Potsdam one of the most important exhibition sites for Impressionist landscape painting worldwide.