Meindert Hobbema

Dutch, 1638 - 1709

Meindert Hobbema, viewed today as one of the most characteristic and highly valued Dutch landscape painters of the seventeenth century, is not mentioned in a single seventeenth-century literary source. The earliest reference to his work occurs in Johan van Gool’s 1751 lexicon of Dutch artists, where Hobbema is mentioned in passing as having painted “modern landscapes.”

Born to Lubbert Meynerts and Rinsje Eduwarts, Hobbema was baptized as Meyndert Lubbertsz in Amsterdam on October 31, 1638. Although he signed his name M. Hobbema on paintings as early as 1658, he used only his baptized name on legal documents until 1660. His reasons for using the name Hobbema are unknown. In July 1660 the landscape painter Ruisdael, Jacob van testified that Hobbema had “served and learned with me for a few years.” The apprenticeship may have begun around 1658, shortly after Ruisdael moved to Amsterdam. Nevertheless, the impact of Ruisdael’s work on Hobbema is not apparent until after 1660. Hobbema’s earlier work seems more closely related to the lighter and more delicate landscapes of Jacob’s uncle   Ruysdael, Salomon van.

Hobbema’s relationship to Jacob van Ruisdael must have remained close during the 1660s, both personally and professionally. Many of Hobbema’s compositions produced during this period evolve from those of his master, and in 1668 Ruisdael was a witness at Hobbema’s marriage to Eeltien Vinck. Vinck was a kitchen maid to Lambert Reynst, a burgomaster of Amsterdam, and through this connection Hobbema seems to have been awarded the well-paid position of wine gauger for the Amsterdam octroi, or civic tax collectors. After his marriage he painted relatively infrequently. He outlived his wife and five children and was buried a pauper at the cemetery of the Westerkerk, in Amsterdam, at the age of seventy-one.

Although Broulhiet attributes about five hundred paintings to Hobbema in his monograph, many of his attributions cannot be defended. A number of the paintings he gives to Hobbema are by contemporaries who painted in similar styles, as for example Jan van Kessel (Dutch, 1641 - 1680). Others are probably nineteenth-century imitations painted at a time when Hobbema’s style was extremely fashionable. Nevertheless, a range of quality does exist in paintings whose attribution to Hobbema seems justifiable. Although we have no documentary evidence about his workshop practices, it seems likely that he had assistants working under his direct supervision, producing variations of his compositions. He also may have employed a number of staffage specialists to paint small figures in his landscapes.

Explore Selected Works

Meindert Hobbema, Village near a Pool, c. 1670, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.32

Village near a Pool

Meindert Hobbema · c. 1670 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.32

We look across a stream and through a loose screen of shadowy trees at a sunlit farm under a powder-blue sky with towering, puffy clouds in this vertical landscape painting. The ground and stream closest to us are painted in tones of olive green, sepia and earth brown, black, and slate gray. Nearly lost in shadow, a group of six people gathers at the water’s edge in the lower left. Small in scale within the composition, they wear brick-red, gray, or caramel-brown garments. Beyond them, a low picket fence winds through and between a loose band of shadowy trees, which are painted with gnarled, dark gray trunks and camel-brown, sage, and pine-green leaves. The trees to our left are closer and taller, while those to our right are a little farther away. The sun pours from the upper left into the field beyond. The farm buildings there have tan walls and sloping, peach-colored roofs. A few animals and people, smaller than the group in front, stand among the buildings, and more cottages can be glimpsed through a stand of trees on our right. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the composition, and a church and steeple are silhouetted against the sky in the deep distance. A few birds fly in front of gray and white clouds that rise from the right side and spread across the top of the canvas.
Meindert Hobbema, A Farm in the Sunlight, 1668, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.60

A Farm in the Sunlight

Meindert Hobbema · 1668 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.60

Several people sit, stand, or stroll along a dirt road that winds from the lower left corner of this horizontal landscape painting into the distance, past trees and cottages under a vivid blue sky. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the canvas, and the cloud studded, azure-blue sky fills the space above. Sunlight filtered through puffy white and steel-gray clouds illuminates the scene from the upper right, creating patches of light and shadow throughout. The road meanders through the center of the composition and is lined with dark and sage-green shrubs, scrubby growth, and gnarled, crooked trees. Closest to us and to our left, two tan cottages are tucked into deep shade created by a grove of several tall trees. The cottages have steeply pitched roofs and windows flanked by gray or brick-red shutters. Three people sit and stand near the path outside the closest building. A short distance to our right, a man sitting on a fallen log carries walking stick and a bundle on his back. His body faces us but his head is turned to our right to gaze toward the man and woman about to stroll past him, headed in our direction. The woman wears a black dress over a white skirt, and a white head covering and shawl. The man wears a brimmed hat with a red decoration, a brown coat with gold buttons down the front and a wide white collar, and heeled shoes. Beyond them, the road curves to our left around a small pond in front of the second cottage. Two people crouch to set a toy sailboat afloat by the edge of the pond, and a brown dog sniffs the ground nearby. Two more people stand talking at the doorway to the second cottage and another dog leaps up at the half-door. Further along the road, the light becomes stronger, illuminating a horse, rider, and another person walking alongside the horse. The road continues to curve around a butter-yellow cottage nestled in a grove of trees on the right. A sunny field is visible in the far distance.
Meindert Hobbema, A View on a High Road, 1665, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.62

A View on a High Road

Meindert Hobbema · 1665 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.62

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.
Meindert Hobbema, Hut among Trees, c. 1664, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.30

Hut among Trees

Meindert Hobbema · c. 1664 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.30

A rutted, dirt road curves from the bottom center of the canvas toward and behind a grove of tall trees to our left, beneath a pale blue sky with fluffy white clouds that fills the top two-thirds of this horizontal landscape painting. The broad, green canopies of the trees to our left create deep shade over twisting trunks, shrubs, and grasses. A narrow stream meandering alongside the road to our left reflects the moss, pine, and sage greens of the leaves. The land rises in a sloping bank to our right, and leads back to open fields with hedgerows that stretch to the horizon. Shorter, more spindly trees cluster along the bank in the distance. Tiny in scale, people are sprinkled throughout the landscape, either singly or in small groups. In the shade of the grove to our left, a man with dark pantaloons, a brown hat and coat, and a walking stick strolls along the road with a woman wearing a red skirt, a dark shirt, and a white apron and cap. Just off the curve of the road to our right, another man with a walking stick, tan hat, and dark gray pantaloons talks to a woman also wearing red, black, and white. Another person, slightly smaller in stature, stands between them. At a pond farther back from this trio, a man with a broad-brimmed hat sits fishing at the edge of the water. Barely visible, a house with a pitched roof, a tall, brick-red chimney, and a white picket fence peeks out from behind the trees beyond the pond. Finally, a man wearing a rust-orange coat, gray pantaloons with white stockings, and a tall hat, carrying a pole propped on his shoulder, walks toward us on a footpath running alongside the fields. Tall, cream-white clouds dot the pale blue sky above, and tiny dots of dark paint suggest flying birds. Soft sunlight pours across the countryside. The artist signed and dated the painting in small script in the lower right corner: “meijndert Hobbema F 1663.”
Meindert Hobbema, A Wooded Landscape, 1663, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.61

A Wooded Landscape

Meindert Hobbema · 1663 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.61

Two light-skinned men on horseback ride toward us on a rutted, country road set in a sweeping view with a watermill along a river to our left, and a screen of trees to our right in this horizontal landscape painting. The horizon comes about a third of the way up the composition, and many of the trees and the watermill are shown against the white and dove-gray clouds rolling across the pale blue sky. The riders are small in scale when compared to the landscape. The man to our left rides a chestnut-brown horse and wears a red jacket and a black, wide-brimmed hat pushed back on his head. The man to our right, on a silvery gray horse, wears a brown hat and clothing. White streaks at their necks and cuffs suggest lace or linen undershirts. Both horses walk with their bodies angled slightly to our left on the curving path. Two dogs trot ahead of the riders, toward us. A charcoal-gray, wooden bridge beyond the men to our left leads to the watermill. The squat, wide building is constructed on a stone foundation with wooden posts and beams that make a geometric pattern within the canary-yellow stucco. The gabled roof is covered with terracotta-red tiles at the peak closest to us, but the rest is thatched in gray and tawny brown. One small chimney rises from the center and the other from the end farther from us. A tall, water wheel is affixed to the shaded side of the building closest to us. A few ducks float in the grass-lined river near the lower left corner of the composition. The trees that dominate the right half of the canvas are painted with shades of moss, sage, and pine green and golden yellow. Only closer inspection reveals the tip of a church spire rising behind the treetops to our right. In the shadows beneath the trees, we also find a man wearing a tall sack on his back and holding a walking stick as he sits on a low rise near the lower right corner, and a man and child walking away from us along the path in the distance, into the trees.
Meindert Hobbema, The Travelers, 166[2?], oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.31

The Travelers

Meindert Hobbema · 166[2?] · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.31

Two men and a dog walk or stand on a rutted dirt road that stretches into the distance in front of us, between a grove of trees to our left and a shallow, narrow canal or ditch to our right in this horizontal landscape painting. The horizon comes about a quarter of the way up the composition, and puffy white clouds float across a pale blue sky above. Outlined against the sky, the leaves of some of the trees to our left are olive or moss green, and others are golden yellow. Tiny in scale and a distance from us, the men wear dark, brimmed hats and dark pants and shoes or boots. One wears a crimson-red shirt or jacket and the other has something white, presumably a sack, flung across one shoulder over a dark jacket. The men walk or pause near a short row of three trees between the path and the canal to our right. Farther back and almost lost in shadow to our left, a third person is painted as a dark silhouette walking near the grove of trees. The water in the canal shimmers between marine blue and pale rust brown. The area beyond the canal is flat fields. Painted as a faint gray silhouette along the far distant horizon, the spires of a church and other buildings indicate a town in the deep distance to our right. A few dots of dark paint suggest birds flying high over the fields to our right. The artist signed the painting in the lower right corner, making the first two letters into an intertwined monogram: “MHobbema.”
Meindert Hobbema, Wooded Landscape with Figures, c. 1658, oil on panel, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2015.143.13

Wooded Landscape with Figures

Meindert Hobbema · c. 1658 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2015.143.13

Bibliography

1751

  • Gool, Johan van. De Nieuwe Schouburg der Nederlantsche Kunstschilder en Schilderessen. 2 vols. The Hague, 1751: 2:490.

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):109-163, 9(1842):719-729.

1891

  • Cundall, Frank. The Landscape and Pastoral Painters of Holland. London, 1891.

1910

  • Bredius, Abraham. "Uit Hobbema's laatste levensjaren." Oud Holland 28 (1910): 93-106; 29 (1911): 124-128; 33 (1915): 193-198.

1927

  • Rosenberg, Jacob. "Hobbema." Jahrbuch der Preussischen Kunstsammlungen 48 (1927): 139-151.

1938

  • Broulhiet, Georges. Meindert Hobbema (1638-1709). Paris, 1938.

1959

  • Stechow, Wolfgang. "The Early Years of Hobbema." Art Quarterly 22 (Spring 1959): 3-18.

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: 76-80, 127-128.

1987

  • Sutton, Peter C., et al. Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Landscape Painting. Exh. cat. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Philadelphia Museum of Art. Boston, 1987: 345-354.

1991

  • MacLaren, Neil. The Dutch School, 1600-1900. Revised and expanded by Christopher Brown. 2 vols. National Gallery Catalogues. London, 1991: 1:175.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 112.