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Meindert Hobbema (c. 1638 - December, 1709), the
greatest landscape painter of the List of people
from the Dutch Golden Age|Dutch school after Jacob
van Ruysdael|Ruysdael, lived in Amsterdam during
the second half of the 17th century.



The facts of his life are somewhat obscure. His
chronology and signed pictures substantially
contradict each other. According to the latter his
practice lasted from 1650 to 1689; according to
the former his birth occurred in 1638, his death
as late as 1709. 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 Oudekerk or old
church at Amsterdam, on the 2nd of November 1668.
Witnesses to the marriage were the brides 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
Ruysdael's, 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. In 1704 Eeltije died, and was buried in
the pauper section of the Leiden cemetery at
Amsterdam. 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, Frans Hals|Hals,
Jacob Ruysdael, and Hobbema were in one respect
alike. They all died in misery, insufficiently
rewarded perhaps for their toil, imprudent perhaps
in the use of the means derived from their
labours.

Posterity has recognised that Hobbema and Ruysdael
together represent the final development of
landscape art in Netherlands|Holland. Their style
is so related that we cannot suppose the first to
have been unconnected with the second. 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 Philips Koninck|Philip de Koningk.

In the exercise of his craft Hobbema was patient
beyond all conception. It is doubtful whether any
one ever so completely mastered as he did the
still life of woods and hedges, or mills and
pools. Nor can we believe that he obtained this
mastery otherwise than by constantly dwelling in
the same neighbourhood, say in Guelders or on the
Dutch Westphalian border, where day after day he
might study the branching and foliage of trees and
underwood embowering cottages and mills, under
every variety of light, in every shade of
transparency, in all changes produced by the
seasons. Though his landscapes are severely and
moderately toned, generally in an olive key, and
often attuned to a puritanical grey or russet,
they surprise us, not only by the variety of their
leafage, but by the finish of their detail as well
as the boldness of their touch. With astonishing
subtlety light is shown penetrating cloud, and
illuminating, sometimes transiently, sometimes
steadily, different portions of the ground,
shining through leaves upon other leaves, and
multiplying in an endless way the transparency of
the picture. If the chance be given him he mirrors
all these things in the still pool near a cottage,
the reaches of a sluggish river, or the swirl of
the stream that feeds a busy mill. The same spot
will furnish him with several pictures. One mill
gives him repeated opportunities of charming our
eye; 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 Adrian van de Velde, Jan
Lingelbach|Lingelbach, Barendt Gael, and Abraham
Storck. As to this much is conjecture.

The best of Hobbema's dated pictures are those of
the years 1663 to 1667. Of the former, several in
the galleries of Brussels and St Petersburg, and
one in the Holford collection, are celebrated. Of
1665 fine specimens are at Grosvenor House and the
Wallace Collection. Of seven pieces in the
National Gallery, London|National Gallery,
including the Avenue at Middelharnis, which some
assign to 1689, and the Ruins of Breberode Castle,
two are dated 1667. A sample of the last of these
years is also in the Fitzwilliam Museum at
Cambridge. Amongst the masterpieces in private
hands in England may be noticed two landscapes in
Buckingham Palace, two at Bridgewater House, and
one belonging to Mr Walter of Bearwood. On the
continent are a Wooded Landscape in the Berlin
gallery, a Forest belonging to the duchess of
Sagan in Paris, and a Glade in the Louvre. There
are other fine Hobbema's in the Antwerp Museum,
and the Arenberg gallery at Brussels.
----
1911