The work shows the Grimnessesluis (on the Grimburgwal, close to the Oudemanhuispoort) in the center of Amsterdam. The photograph shows the same point in 1941.
Once offered at an auction house where it was referred to as "a view of a canal," but it was not just some random canal in a Dutch town but a canal in the heart of Amsterdam. Knip painted often in the center of Amsterdam.
[Google translation of text at http://www.limpression.nl/grimnessesluis-door-wa-knip/]