Hut among Trees

c. 1664

Meindert Hobbema

Artist, Dutch, 1638 - 1709

A dilapidated cottage nestles among leafy trees next to a winding dirt road in this square landscape painting. The dirt road runs from the bottom center of the painting into the distance. The cottage sits to the right of the road, encircled by a low, rustic fence. There are holes in the roof, and the whole building leans a bit to our left. The wall we can see has areas of gray, mustard yellow, and brick red, and some panels and windows are missing. Other windows have diamond-shaped panes. Gnarled sage and olive-green trees and scrubby dark green underbrush surround the hut and grow on the other side of the road, to our left. Trees on the far side of the cottage form a line between it and a spring-green lawn that leads back to a butter-yellow house. A woman and child stand in the road facing us as a thin, light brown dog scampers in our direction. The woman holds a rust-orange bundle in her arms. Further up the road, a man on horseback rides away from the woman and child toward the yellow house. Dark gray and white clouds drift in a powder-blue sky overhead.

Media Options

Skip thumbnail navigation
Back to thumbnail navigation
This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Meindert Hobbema studied under the noted landscape artist Jacob van Ruisdael, and quite a few of his compositions evolved from the work of his erstwhile master. Hobbema approached nature in a straightforward manner, depicting picturesque, rural scenery enlivened by the presence of peasants or hunters. He often reused favorite motifs such as old watermills, thatch-roofed cottages, and embanked dikes, rearranging them into new compositions. Hobbema’s rolling clouds allow patches of sunshine to illuminate the rutted roads or small streams that lead back into rustic woods. All six of the National Gallery’s canvases by Hobbema share these characteristics.

Hobbema painted three other versions of a Hut among Trees, but the National Gallery painting is the only one in which the house is in such disrepair. Hobbema’s compositions tended to become more open over the course of the 1660s, so the comparatively dense band of trees stretching across the middle section of this painting suggests that this may be the earliest of the four similar works. Before this canvas was cleaned, a different figure group—probably added in the nineteenth century—occupied the center. The addition had covered the original figures of a woman and child, which were then restored.

Not on view See artworks now on view

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 96.5 x 108 cm (38 x 42 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1942.9.30

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: Hut among Trees, c. 1664

This horizontal painting shows a group of eight light-skinned musicians and onlookers gathered closely around a rectangular, carpet-covered table. The front edge of the table runs parallel to the bottom edge of the painting, and seems close to us. Shown from about the waist up, the men and women’s vivid lapis-blue, coral-red, buttercup-yellow, lilac-purple, and moss-green garments fall in crisp folds. Bright reflections on the fabric suggest a satin-like material. Two women wear feathers in their hair and one man’s hat is plumed. One man, wearing crimson red and black, sits with his back to us to our left on the near side of the table. He holds the neck of a bass viol, about the size of a cello, with his left hand, and points to pages of an open music book with the bow in his right hand. The other people cluster on the far side of the table. A man to the left plays a violin; a woman at the center plays a guitar-sized bandora, and a woman to our right plays a lute. The musicians, along with a man who leans over the table from between the two women, look down at the music books. A young man behind the woman at the center holds up a glass of pale liquid with his right hand as he touches his left forefinger to his smiling lips. A man and woman stand close together in the background to our right, in the top right corner of the canvas.

Scholarly Series:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Probably Hugh Hammersley [1774-1840]; (his estate sale, Alexander Rainy, London, 21 August 1841, no. 57); (Charles J. Nieuwenhuys, Brussels and London).[1] William Bingham Baring, 2nd baron Ashburton [1799-1864], Grange Park, Hampshire, by 1854;[2] by inheritance to his brother, Francis Baring, 3rd baron Ashburton [1800-1868], Grange Park; by inheritance to his son, Alexander Hugh Baring, 4th baron Ashburton [1835-1889], Grange Park; by inheritance to his son, Francis Denzil Edward Baring, 5th baron Ashburton [1866-1938], Grange Park; jointly purchased 1907 by (Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Arthur J. Sulley & Co., and Charles J. Wertheimer, all in London); sold 1909 by (Arthur J. Sulley & Co.) to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] The name is cited as "H. Hammersley" in John Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, 9 vols., London, 1829-1842: 9:729; and Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 8 vols., trans. by Edward G. Hawke, London, 1907-1927: 4:433. Although the title page of the sale catalogue does not provide the seller(s) name(s), The Getty Provenance Index Databases record for Sale Catalogue BR-15070 indicates the sellers as Skammers and Hammersley. The sale is listed in Frits Lugt, Répertoire des catalogues de ventes, 4 vols., The Hague, 1938: 2:no. 16295, where the seller is given as Skammers. Hammersley (sometimes spelled Hamersley) was a member of a prominent banking family in London. The annotated copy of the sale catalogue held by the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague, provides the buyer's name.
[2] Lady Marian Jervis-White-Jervis, Painting and Celebrated Painters, Ancient and Modern, 2 vols., London, 1854, 2:344. The painting is not listed in Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Works of Art and Artists in England, 3 vols., London, 1838, or Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: being an account of the Chief Collection of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, and Illuminated Mss., 3 vols., London, 1854-1857.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1890

  • Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1890, no. 85, as Landscape.

2013

  • Verso Monet: Storia del paesaggio dal Seicento al Novecento, Palazzo della Gran Guardia, Verona; Basilica Palladiana, Vicenza, 2013- 2014, no. 5, 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: 9(1842):729, no. 28.

1854

  • Jervis-White-Jervis, Lady Marian. Painting and Celebrated Painters, Ancient and Modern. 2 vols. London, 1854: 2:225, 344.

1859

  • Thoré, Théophile E. J. (William Bürger). "Hobbema." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 4 (October 1859): 34 (either Hut among Trees or Ashburton's other Hobbema is mentioned).

1890

  • Royal Academy of Arts. Exhibition of works by the old masters and by deceased masters of the British School: including a collection of drawings and models by Alfred Stevens. Winter Exhibition. Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1890: no. 85.

1891

  • Cundall, Frank. The Landscape and Pastoral Painters of Holland: Ruisdael, Hobbema, Cuijp, Potter. Illustrated biographies of the great artists. London, 1891: 157.

1907

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. 8 vols. Translated by Edward G. Hawke. London, 1907-1927: 4(1912):415-416, no. 181.

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907-1928: 4(1911):433, no. 181.

1913

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis, and Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Pictures in the collection of P. A. B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: Early German, Dutch & Flemish Schools. Philadelphia, 1913: unpaginated, repro.

  • Graves, Algernon. A Century of Loan Exhibitions, 1813–1912. 5 vols. London, 1913-1915: 2(1913):517, no. 85.

1923

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro.

1931

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 56, repro.

1938

  • Broulhiet, Georges. Meindert Hobbema (1638–1709). Paris, 1938: 236, 413, no. 268.

1942

  • National Gallery of Art. Works of art from the Widener collection. Washington, 1942: 5.

1948

  • National Gallery of Art. Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 60, repro.

1960

  • MacLaren, Neil. The Dutch School. Text. National Gallery Catalogues. London, 1960: 170, n. 1 to no. 995.

1965

  • National Gallery of Art. Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. Washington, 1965: 68.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 60, repro.

1975

  • National Gallery of Art. European paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. Washington, 1975: 176, repro.

1983

  • Wright, Christopher. Dutch Landscape Painting. Exh. cat. Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne. Newcastle, 1983: 65.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 295, no. 386, color repro.

1985

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. Washington, 1985: 203, repro.

1986

  • Broos, Ben P.J., et al. De Rembrandt à Vermeer. Les peintures hollandais au Mauritshuis de La Haye. Exh. cat. Galeries nationale du Grand Palais, Paris. The Hague, 1986: 262-275, no. 34c, repro.

1987

  • Broos, Ben P. J. Meesterwerken in het Mauritshuis. The Hague, 1987: 211, repro.

1991

  • MacLaren, Neil. The Dutch School, 1600-1900. Revised and expanded by Christopher Brown. 2 vols. National Gallery Catalogues. London, 1991: 1:182, fig. 43.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1995: 120-123, color repro. 121.

  • Keyes, George S. "Meindert Hobbema's Wooded Landscape with a Water Mill." The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin 67 (1995): 48, fig. 8.

Inscriptions

lower left: M Hobbema

Wikidata ID

Q20177596

You may be interested in

Loading Results