Frances Hodgkins spent quite a lot of time in Holland during 1907. It was a popular country for sketching classes of the kind Hodgkins herself took, as did her friend Norman Garstin. in fact, Garstin made a watercolour not dissimilar to this in composition now in th Theomin Collection, Olveston, Dunedin. Part of the appeal of Holland, as of Brittany, was the opportunity to paint figures in distinctive regional costume. The group of children in traditional Dutch costume at the bridge shows Hodgkins' response to this kind of picturesque detail. She admired the works of artists such as Lucien Simon or Stanhope Forbes, who often depicted village life where traditional values and costumes persisted. The painting is pitched in a low key suggestive of an evening light where visibility is reduced and forms begin to merge together and lose their sharpness. She made quite a few watercolours with this kind of lighting in Holland and also at Concarneau. Her receptivity to light effects reveals her continuing interest in impressionistic concerns and observation from nature. The date of the work is partly obscured but is probably 1907.

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I. Buchanan, M. Dunn, E. Eastmond, Frances Hodgkins: Paintings and Drawings (Auckland University Press, 2001). p. 100