It was against the backdrop of severe financial difficulties that Vincent engaged in several drawings including Uitzicht over Den Haag met de Nieuwe Kerk. Dr. Jan Hulsker author of The Complete van Gogh catalogued it as Vincent’s 97^th work, a placement suggesting it could be attributed to a date as early as late February. It is known, however that during the month of March he did a considerable amount of drawing in the streets, often in the company of painter George Hendrick Breitner. Either date establishes this as one of his earliest efforts challenging his ability to intensify color without losing the most alluring quality of pigment and binder suspended in water: its transparency.  In appreciation of Mauve’s patient encouragement, he wrote to Theo that “this is what Mauve says to console me when my drawings turn out heavy, thick, muddy, black, dead: ‘if you were already working thinly now, it would only be being stylish and later your work would probably become thick. Now, though, you’re struggling and it becomes heavy, but later it will become quick and thin. If indeed it turns out like that, I have nothing against it.”

Notwithstanding Vincent’s highly motivated exigency of ‘getting on with it’ and despite severe financial distress and strained familial relations, progress was almost immediate under Mauve’s direction. Vincent’s draftsmanship could be frighteningly uneven at this stage of his development but in light of the modest compositional demands of Uitzicht over Den Haag met de Nieuwe Kerk, as a study in color it is most impressive; a direct and honest work unburdened by any overzealous attention to detail. It is surely one of his most successful early forays working color into his drawings.