Meindert Hobbema - Reference

Landscape painter, probably born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He studied under Ruysdael, but lacked his master's genius and range, contenting himself with florid, placid, and charming watermill scenes. Nevertheless his masterpiece, ‘The Avenue, Middelharnis’ (1689, National Gallery, London) is a striking exception, and has greatly influenced modern landscape artists.

Meindert Hobbema (bapt. Oct 31, 1638, Amsterdam - Dec 7, 1709, Amsterdam), was perhaps the greatest landscape painter of the Dutch school after Ruysdael.

The facts of his life are somewhat obscure. If the masterpiece formerly, in the Bredel collection, called A Wooded Stream, honestly bears the date of 1650, or The Cottages under Trees of the Ford collection the date of 1652, the painter of these canvases cannot be Hobbema, whose birth took place in 1638, unless indeed we admit that Hobbema painted some of his finest works at the age of twelve or fourteen. For a considerable period it was profitable to pass Hobbema's as Ruysdael's, and the name of the lesser master was probably erased from several of his productions. When Hobbema's talent was recognized, the contrary process was followed, and in this way the name, and perhaps fictitious dates, reappeared by fraud. An experienced eye will note the differences which occur in Hobbema's signatures in such well-known examples as adorn the galleries of London and Rotterdam, or the Grosvenor and van der Hoop collections. Meanwhile, we must be content to know that, if the question of dates could be brought into accordance with records and chronology, the facts of Hobbema's life would be as follows.

Meindert Hobbema was married at the age of thirty to Eeltije Vinck of Gorcum, in the Oude Kerk (Old Church) at Amsterdam, on the 2nd of November 1668. Witnesses to the marriage were the bride's brother Cornelius Vinck and Jacob Ruysdael. We might suppose from this that Hobbema and Ruysdael, the two great masters of landscape, were united at this time by ties of friendship, and accept the belief that the former was the pupil of the latter. Yet even this is denied to us, since records tell us that there were two Jacob Ruysdaels, cousins and contemporaries, at Amsterdam in the middle of the 17th century - one a framemaker, the son of Solomon, the other a painter, the son of Isaac Ruysdael. Of Hobbema's marriage there came between 1668 and 1673 four children. Hobbema himself survived till December 1709, receiving burial on the 14th of that month in the pauper section of the Westerkerk cemetery at Amsterdam.

Husband and wife had lived during their lifetime in the Rozengracht, at no great distance from Rembrandt, who also dwelt there in his later and impoverished days. Rembrandt, Hals, Jacob Ruysdael, and Hobbema were in one respect alike.

Posterity has recognised that Hobbema and Ruysdael together represent the final development of landscape art in Holland. Still their works differ in certain ways, and their character is generally so marked that we shall find little difficulty in distinguishing them, nor indeed shall we hesitate in separating those of Hobbema from the feebler productions of his imitators and predecessors Isaac Ruysdael, Rontbouts, de Vries, Dekker, Looten, Verboom, do Bois, van Kessel, van der Hagen, even Philip de Koningk.

In the exercise of his craft Hobbema was patient beyond all conception. and this wonderful artist, who is only second to Ruysdael because he had not Ruysdael's versatility and did not extend his study equally to downs and rocky eminences, or torrents and estuaries - this is the man who lived penuriously, died poor, and left no trace in the artistic annals of his country. It has been said that Hobbema did not paint his own figures, but transferred that duty to Adriaen van de Velde, Lingelbach, Barendt Gael, and Abraham Storck.

The best of Hobbema's dated pictures are those of the years 1663 to 1667. There are other fine Hobbema's in the Antwerp Museum, and the Arenberg gallery at Brussels.

Reference

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.