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
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.
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.
