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#107: By Aimee Ng, Curator Transcript

Born in Amsterdam to a carpenter, Hobbema trained with Jacob van Ruisdael before establishing himself in the Dutch art scene of the seventeenth century with landscape paintings like Village among Trees and Village with Water Mill among Trees. He infused his serene portrayals of Dutch village life with hints of humanity—miniscule figures who converse, toil, and rest—and highly naturalistic depictions of cottages, watermills, and winding roads. Above all, trees shape his compositions—soaring and knotty, catching sunlight and casting shade. A sense of formulaic consistency characterizes many of his landscapes, in which details vary but the overall composition and effect remains dependably serene and familiar, perhaps offering a rustic visual escape to his wealthy patrons in the bustling mercantile city of Amsterdam.

Hobbema stopped painting, for the most part, after he married in 1668 and got a job as a wine-gauger (responsible for weighing and measuring imported wines), which provided a more regular income than painting did. But his landscapes had a significant legacy in European painting, inspiring artists like John Constable in nineteenth-century Britain, where Dutch landscapes like Hobbema’s were enormously popular.

Village with Water Mill among Trees

 (Dutch, 1638–1709)
Dateca. 1665
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions37 1/8 x 51 1/8 in. (94.3 x 129.9 cm)
Credit LineHenry Clay Frick Bequest
Accession number1911.1.74
Commentary

Elements the artist repeated throughout his career — variegated foliage, picturesque cottages, a winding road, and a sky with windswept clouds — can be seen in this landscape. But if Hobbema’s repertory of motifs was limited, he managed nevertheless to invest his paintings with considerable freshness and variety.

Source: Art in The Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.

Collection History

The Cavendish family (Earls of Burlington), Holker Hall, Lancashire. Knoedler. Frick, 1911.

Source: Paintings in The Frick Collection: American, British, Dutch, Flemish and German. Volume I. New York: The Frick Collection, 1968.

Not On View
Oil painting of landscape with house and trees
Meindert Hobbema
1665
oil painting of people dancing and playing instruments in a landscape
Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater
1713–36
oil painting of a landscape with a road down the center, as well as trees, houses, and people
Théodore Rousseau
ca. 1857
Oil painting of a sitting woman holding a book on her lap
Carel van der Pluym
mid-1650s
Oil painting of girl wearing white dress
Thomas Lawrence
after 1827
Oil painting of man wearing a black suit sitting at desk
Sir Henry Raeburn
ca. 1815
Oil painting of a man wearing a black outfit with a white collar
Follower of Peter Paul Rubens
early 17th century
Oil painting of sitting woman wearing blue and white dress
Joshua Reynolds
1762
Oil painting of woman wearing black dress standing
George Romney
1788–92
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