A Wooded Landscape with Peasants on a Path and an Angler at a Stream

1662 · Collection of ChristchurchArtGallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, Christchurch, New Zealand

landscape

Although this painting is painted in the careful, precise manner typical of Dutch realist painting from the 17th century, it is not an exact description of a specific country view. The details have been selected and arranged to make a more pleasing scene. The figures and the buildings add to the human interest, while the small and precise detail of the plant forms give it a sense of authenticity.

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A Wooded Landscape with Peasants on a Path and an Angler at a Stream

About the Artist

Meyndert Hobbema

1638 – 1709

Dutch landscape painter. He worked in his native Amsterdam, where he was the friend and only documented pupil of Jacob van Ruisdael. Some of his pictures are very like Ruisdael's, but his range was more limited and he lacked the latter's power to capture the majesty of nature. He painted a narrow range of favourite subjects — particularly water-mills and trees around a pool — over and over again. In 1668 he became a wine gauger with the Amsterdam customs and excise, and thereafter seems to have painted only in his spare time. However, his most famous work, The Avenue at Middelharnis (National Gallery, London), dates from 1689. Hobbema has long been a popular artist in England (his influence is clear in Gainsborough 's early landscapes) and he is outstandingly well represented in English collections.

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