Meindert Hobbema, 'A Woody Landscape with a Cottage', about 1665

A Woody Landscape with a Cottage

Meindert Hobbema

Not on display

About the work

Overview

A rutted cart track leads straight into the middle of the picture. A group of figures are caught in a patch of sunlight while a cottage merges into the shadows. A frieze of trees stands out against a sunny glade and a cloudy sky beyond. Many of Hobbema’s landscapes were composed around these specific elements. The vast majority were almost certainly not real views, but studio paintings designed to evoke the woodlands around Haarlem near his home town of Amsterdam.

This painting is an archetypal example of Hobbema’s picturesque, positive evocation of country life, with his harmonious view of the world subtly underlined in the composition itself. The painting is full of curves and meanders; even the strong diagonals of the cottage roofline are softened by the surrounding foliage. There is balance too – the canopy of the tallest tree is reflected by the shape of the cloud next to it, and the three figures in the foreground form a neat symmetrical group, right on the centre line of the painting.

In-depth

Many of Hobbema’s landscapes were composed around these specific elements. The vast majority were almost certainly not real views, but studio paintings designed to evoke the woodlands around Haarlem near his home town of Amsterdam. This painting is an archetypal example of his work. In fact, it seems to have been one of his favourite arrangements: three other versions of the same scene, with slight differences, have survived (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Mauritshuis, The Hague; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.).

This type of specialisation was typical of the time: most artists in seventeenth-century Holland worked in a particular genre. Hobbema had learnt to paint landscapes as an apprentice to Jacob van Ruisdael, who was the leading landscape artist of the time. But while his teacher’s work often captured the energy and drama of the natural world, Hobbema preferred an atmosphere of quiet reflection. There are subtle hints of death and decay – in the fallen trunk and leafless branches we see on the left – but the painting generally avoids troubling the viewer with worldly cares.

In fact, here Hobbema even seems to play down the economic role played by woodland at the time – it was a valuable resource and a source of work and income for the people who lived there. What we see here is known as wood pasture, a landscape which supported livestock grazing as well as the harvesting of timber, which was the most flexible and important construction material of the time. Timber was also vital for firewood, fencing, charcoal and other uses – for example, the birch trees we see in this painting were used for medicines, cosmetics and perfumes, while alder made scaffold poles and the soles of clogs.

But working life is hardly hinted at in this picture. There is some fencing, but no sign of domestic animals except a man with a dog. Other figures stand chatting or watching idly from the doorway. Instead, this is a picturesque, positive – even idealised – evocation of country life. And Hobbema subtly underlined that gentle, harmonious view of the world in the composition itself. The painting is full of curves and meanders; even the strong diagonals of the cottage roofline are softened by the surrounding foliage. There is balance too – the canopy of the tallest tree is reflected by the shape of the cloud next to it, and the three figures in the foreground form a neat symmetrical group, right on the centre line of the painting.

Key facts

Details

Full title: A Woody Landscape with a Cottage
Artist: Meindert Hobbema
Artist dates: 1638 - 1709
Date made: about 1665
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 99.5 × 130.5 cm
Acquisition credit: Wynn Ellis Bequest, 1876
Inventory number: NG995
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Wynn Ellis

Provenance

In the collection of William Leader by 1824, when it was exhibited at the BI; apparently still in his collection in Putney c. 1835. Probably in the collection of Wynn Ellis, London, by 1850 or 1851; perhaps exhibited at the BI, 1853. Wynn Ellis Bequest, 1876.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2023

Masterpieces from the National Gallery

Shanghai Art Museum East

17 January 2023 - 7 May 2023

National Museum of Korea

2 June 2023 - 9 October 2023

Hong Kong Palace Museum

22 November 2023 - 11 April 2024

Chimei Museum

2 May 2024 - 1 September 2024

Bibliography

1830

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters: In Which is Included a Short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Their Principal Pictures […], vol. 2, London 1830
1854

G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being and Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss. […], vol. 2, trans. E. Eastlake, London 1854
1907

C. Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols, London 1907
1960

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
1976

C. Brown, Art in Seventeenth Century Holland (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 30 September - 12 December 1976), London 1976
1983

C. Brown, 'Rubens' Watering Place: An Examination of His Landscape Technique', Ringling Museum of Art Journal, 1983, pp. 130-49
1983

C. Wright, Dutch Landscape Painting (exh. cat. Laing Art Gallery, 13 October - 3 December 1983), Newcastle upon Tyne 1983
1987

B.P.J. Broos, Meesterwerken in het Mauritshuis, Den Haag 1987
1991

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
1991

Christie's, Old Master Paintings, London, 13 December 1991
1994

P. Sutton, El siglo de oro del paisaje Holandés (exh. cat. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, 11 November 1994 - 12 February 1995), Madrid 1994
1995

B.P.J. Broos et al., The Amateur's Cabinet, Seventeenth Century Dutch Masterpieces from Dutch Private Collections (exh. cat. Mauritshuis, 1995), The Hague 1995
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

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A Road winding past Cottages

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Meindert Hobbema liked nothing better than to take you for a walk. He leads us onward – patches of sun that follow one another up the canvas, but into the picture, make the image appear three-dimensional – and leaves us feeling fresh and windblown. In this painting, his trees are stunted and bent...

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A Stream by a Wood

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This is a study for a larger picture by Meindert Hobbema in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, and by comparing the two we can get an insight into how he worked. Instead of painting accurate, identifiable views based on a real scene, Hobbema – and many other landscape specialists of th...

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A Woody Landscape

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Hobbema specialised in landscapes which present a positive, even idealised, evocation of carefree country life, where the trees are always heavy with summer leaf, the tracks are dry and there is only a gentle breeze in the air.This didn’t necessarily reflect day-to-day realities. Woodland of this...

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Cottages in a Wood

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Meindert Hobbema specialised in landscapes, and particularly woodland scenes such as this. They were not usually modelled on real views, but were composed to capture the atmosphere and harmonies of woodland life. Here the three cottages seem to merge into the underwood. Switches cut from a nearby...

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Hobbema has created a remarkable effect in this unusual painting, using the trees of the avenue to funnel our view directly into the heart of the picture and as strong verticals to take the eye upwards. Our gaze is also drawn sideways into the landscape, through both the track which turns off to...

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The Haarlem Lock, Amsterdam

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Hobbema was a specialist landscape painter – this is his only known city view, a depiction of the ordered and harmonious relationship between people and water. We are looking towards the Haarlem Lock at the point where two of Amsterdam’s most important waterways meet – the Singel on the right and...

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The Ruins of Brederode Castle

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Many – very probably most – seventeenth-century Dutch landscape paintings do not show a real view, but were composed to capture the spirit or impression of a place. Even where they do depict somewhere specific they would often be made more aesthetically pleasing by exaggeration or rearrangement.T...

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The Watermills at Singraven near Denekamp

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The watermills depicted here still survive today – they are part of the former estate at Singraven, near Denekamp, one of the most easterly points of Holland. Hobbema seems to have been inspired to paint them because his teacher, Jacob van Ruisdael, had depicted the mills on several occasions.Whi...

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You've viewed 6 of 8 works

Meindert Hobbema, 'A Woody Landscape with a Cottage', about 1665

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Exhibition history

Bibliography

About this record

Images

More works by Meindert Hobbema