In the summer of 1876 he stayed in Haarlem, where he studied works by Frans Hals, with his friend, the etcher William Unger.

Fellow painters were surprised to see him painting en plein air in a courtyard surrounded by girls, which was still very unusual at the time.

[3] With the current painting, he transformed the sketches and impressions of the orphanage, his favorite Amsterdam subject, into a coherent work with a similar lighting mood.

In the foreground, on the right half of the canvas, a loose group of eight girls sits on benches along the wall and on the floor, in the shade; they are sewing white fabrics.

[1] Liebermann's early work was strongly rooted in realism, but because he painted plein air and paid great attention to color and light, he was soon counted among the impressionists.

The Recreation Time in the Amsterdam Orphanage is an excellent example of these aspects of his work: on one hand, the complementary color palette of the spring green of the trees and potted plants and the red of the brick walls and the girls' dresses is striking, and on the other hand, his particular attention to lighting effects, which is expressed in the patches of light falling through the branches and the juxtaposition of the shadowy foreground and the sunny background.