National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: A Wooded Landscape
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

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Inscription

lower right: meijndert hobbema / F 1663

Marks and Labels

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Provenance

Thomas Cobbe [1733-1814], Newbridge House, Donabate, near Dublin, by 1770;[1] gift 1810, with the Cobbe estates and painting collection, to his grandson, Charles Cobbe [1782-1857]; sold 1839 through Michael Gernon to (Thomas Brown, London); sold 4 April 1840 to Robert Stayner Holford, M.P. [1808-1892], Dorchester House, London, and Westonbirt, Gloucestershire;[2] by inheritance to his son, Lieut.-Col. Sir George Lindsay Holford, K.C.V.O. [1860-1926];[3] purchased 1901 through (Charles Wertheimer, London) by J. Pierpont Morgan [1837-1913], New York;[4] by inheritance to his son, J.P. Morgan, Jr. [1867-1943], New York; consigned February 1935 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); sold 13 December 1935 to Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 24 June 1937 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[5] gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] Thomas Cobbe may have acquired the painting by Hobbema upon the recommendation of the Rev. Matthew Pilkington (1701–1774), who was private secretary to Thomas’ father, Charles Cobbe (1686–1765), the Archbishop of Dublin. Pilkington wrote enthusiastically about the Hobbema, then in Cobbe’s collection, in his book The Gentleman’s and Connoisseur’s Dictionary of Painters (London, 1770), 288. The Knoedler prospectus for the painting (in NGA curatorial files) says the painting was owned by the elder Charles Cobbe (Thomas’ father) and then inherited by the younger Charles Cobbe, who is incorrectly identified as the elder Charles’ grandson, when he was in fact the great-grandson. The prospectus does not name Thomas.

[2] For the painting’s early provenance see Alastair Laing, ed., Clerics & Connoisseurs: An Irish Art Collection through Three Centuries (London, 2001), 9, 51,71, 76, 87-89, 116, 373 n. 11 for Wheelock and Cobbe essay.

[3] The Holford Collection, Dorchester House, 2 vols., Oxford, 1927, 2: ix, produced by the executors of Sir G.L. Holford's estate, says that the Hobbema that had belonged to "Mr." (i.e. R.S.) Holford was sold to help pay his death duties. Holford also owned another painting that came to the National Gallery of Art by way of the Andrew W. Mellon Collection, Anthony van Dyck's portrait of Marchesa Balbi (1937.1.49).

[4] "In the Sale Room." Connoisseur 1 (September-December 1901): 190. The Knoedler prospectus (in NGA curatorial files) says this sale took place in 1905.

[5] The painting was Knoedler no. CA 787. See the letter from Nancy C. Little, librarian, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, to Gregory M.G. Rubinstein, 12 September 1987; the Knoedler bill of sale to Mellon; and Mellon collection records, all in NGA curatorial files.

Exhibition History

1840
British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom, London, 1840, no. 22.
1851
British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom, London, 1851, no. 49.
1857
Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Paintings by Ancient Masters, Art Treasures Palace, Manchester, 1857, no. 767.
1862
British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom, London, 1862, no. 3.
1887
Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1887, no. 59.
1900
Exhibition of Pictures by Dutch Masters of the Seventeenth Century, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1900, no. 24.
1909
The Hudson-Fulton Celebration, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1909, no. 48, repro.
1914
Loan Exhibition of the J. Pierpont Morgan Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1913-1916.
2001
Clerics and Connoisseurs: An Irish Art Collection through Three Centuries, The Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood, London, 2001-2002, no. 24, repro.

Bibliography

1829
Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829-1842: 6(1835):149, no. 100; 9(1842):724-725, no. 18.
1854
Jervis, Lady Jervis White. Painting and Celebrated Painters, Ancient and Modern. 2 vols. London, 1854: 2:225, 344.
1854
Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illustrated Mss., etc. etc. 3 vols. London, 1854: 2:202-203.
1857
Thoré, Théophile E. J. (William Bürger). Trésors d'art exposés à Manchester en 1857 et provenant des collections royales, des collections publiques et des collections particulières de la Grande Bretagne. Paris, 1857: 291.
1859
Thoré, Théophile E. J. (William Bürger). "Hobbema." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 4 (October 1859): 28-44.
1860
Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Handbook of Painting: The German, Flemish and Dutch Schools. Based on the Handbook of Kugler. 2 vols. London, 1860: 2:444.
1861
Blanc, Charles. "Hobbema." In Histoire des peintres de toutes les écoles: Ecole Hollandaise. 2 vols. Paris, 1861: 2:12.
1864
Scheltema, P. "Meindert Hobbema: Quelques Renseignements sur ses Oeuvres et sa Vie." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 16 (March 1864): 214-226.
1865
Thoré-Burger, Théophile E. J. (William Bürger). Trésors d'Art en Angelterre. Paris, 1865: 291.
1890
Michel, Émile. Hobbema et les paysagistes de son temps en Hollande. Paris, 1890: 18, 50, 52.
1891
Cundall, Frank. The Landscape and Pastoral Painters of Holland: Ruisdael, Hobbema, Cuijp, Potter. London, 1891: 56-58, 157.
1894
Cobbe, Frances Power. Life of Francis Power Cobbe. 2 vols. Boston and New York, 1894: 1:23-24.
1901
"In the Sale Room." The Connoisseur 1 (September-December 1901): 190-197.
1907
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century.... 8 vols., translated from the German edition. London, 1907-1917: 4(1912):412-413, no. 171.
1907
Roberts, William. Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan. London, 1907: unpaginated, repro.
1913
Bode, Wilhem von. Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures and Bronzes in the Possession of Mr. Otto Beit. London, 1913: 3:21.
1913
Burroughs, Bryson. "A Loan Exhibition of Mr. Morgan's Paintings." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 8 (January 1913): 2-13, repro.
1927
Benson, Robert H. The Holford Collection, Dorchester House. 2 vols. London, 1927: 2:ix.
1930
Valentiner, W. R. Unknown Masterpieces in Public and Private Collections. New York, 1930: not paginated, no. 59, repro.
1937
Jewell, Edward Alden. "Mellon's Gift." Magazine of Art 30, no. 2 (February 1937): 73.
1938
Broulhiet, Georges. Meindert Hobbema (1638-1709).... Paris, 1938: 68, 275, 424, no. 347, 373, pl. 581, repro. of signature.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 97.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 240, repro. 26.
1949
Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 98, repro.
1959
Stechow, Wolfgang. "The Early Years of Hobbema." The Art Quarterly 22 (Spring 1959): 3-18, fig. 13.
1960
MacLaren, Neil. National Gallery Catalogues. The Dutch School. London, 1960: 170.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 67.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:248, color repro.
1966
Stechow, Wolfgang. Dutch Landscape Painting of the Seventeenth Century. National Gallery of Art Kress Foundation Studies in the History of European Art, no. 1. London, 1966: 77, fig. 151.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 59, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 174, repro.
1975
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 295, no. 397, color repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 295, no. 390, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 202, repro.
1986
Sutton, Peter C. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Grand Rapids and Kampen, 1986: 305-306.
1987
Sutton, Peter C., et al. Masters of 17th-Century Dutch Landscape Painting. Exh. cat. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Philadelphia Museum of Art. Boston, 1987: 349 n. 2.
1995
Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 117-120, color repro. 119.
1997
Hochstrasser, Julie Berger. “Inroads to Seventeenth-Century Dutch Landscape Painting.” Nederlands Kunshistorisch Jaarboek 48 (1997): 210, fig. 14. (As Road into a Forest.)
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 212, no. 169, color repro.
2011
Pergam, Elizabeth A. The Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857: Entrepeneurs, Connoisseurs and the Public. Farnham and Burlington, 2011: 313.

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