Meindert Hobbema - Avenue at Middelharnis

Dutch Painter

Meindert Hobbema, was a landscape painter of the Dutch school. 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.
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. Of several pieces in the National Gallery, including the Avenue at Middelharnis, which some assign to 1689, and the Ruins of Brederode Castle, two are dated 1667.